They may be a magnet for bad publicity, but it certainly can't be denied that their franchises sell well. Two of Electronic Arts' games have reached rather high sales, making EA games a high seller on two continents.

In the United States, EA Sports' Madden NFL '07 has sold over 5 million copies across the different consoles. As a result of these figures, a press release EA sent out, they proclaimed Madden to be "North America's most popular game of 2006".

Over in the United Kingdom, it's their underground racing game that's taking up the Electronic Arts banner. Gamasutra reports Need for Speed: Carbon as the new leader of the pack by pushing another EA title, FIFA '07, out of the top spot and into second place.

With best-selling games in two countries, as well as additional games in their lineup in the top ten lists, EA should be quite pleased with their results this year. This is one of EA's best years in the business, making them a company to watch out for yet again in 2007.

EA has just released a factsheet on Madden 2007 which tells us the features of the game according to the console its available on. Madden NFL 07 still remains as the #1 football franchise in history, and with its 17th installment, players get to control the game like never before. Now, they can have the lead blocker control, use the Highlight Stick to bust out player-specific running styles, access team-specific defensive playbooks, and online play in Play Now or Session Match games. Here's a more detailed look at the new features of Madden NFL 07 according to console:

Xbox 360
- Mini-Camp: Create a player then build up his attributes by running him through skill-based, combine-type mini-games. In the off-season use Mini-Camps to condition players or rehab injuries to get back on the field faster.
- NFL Superstar: Hall of Fame Mode: Create and re-create your own player and play on Sundays from any position on the field.
-Madden Gamer Level: Track your career accomplishments in Franchise Mode to earn Madden Gamer Points, and then wager your rewards against the computer or against live online opponents to make it to the NFL Hall of Fame.
- Replay Challenge: Throw the red flag and challenge any play. Overturned calls or plays "that stand" have a huge effect on the outcome of every game.

Nintendo DS
- Enhanced Control Scheme: Touch Pad buttons allow you to navigate through the game with simple finger taps. You can also draw on-screen hot routes and use voice recognition to call audibles.
- Gameplay Graphics: New visuals and higher resolution on receivers and lineman, stadium day-night lighting, and weather effects.

PSP
- PSP Exclusive Mini-Games: Return kicks, avoid tackles, and aim for the High Score in a PSP system-exclusive mini-game.
- PSP to PS2 Connectivity: Transfer an entire season in Franchise mode from PS2 to your PSP system.

Just a few reminders though for those who may not know, online play (naturally) requires an internet connection. Xbox Live online play also requires subscription to XBL service. For PS2 users, you're gonna need a network adaptor and memory card to be able to play online.

The numbers for last month are finally in and it looks like we now know what happened in August! August is typically one of the slowest times of the year for the gaming industry. It's also one of the most predictable when it comes to the software charts for the United States. What do I mean by that? August, at least in the USA, is the month of Madden. Just look at the number it pulled off!

1. PS2 Madden NFL 07 - 885,000
2. 360 Madden NFL 07 - 477,000
3. XBX Madden NFL 07 - 253,000
4. PS2 Madden NFL 07: Hall of Fame Edition - 127,000
5. 360 Madden NFL 07: Hall of Fame Edition - 92,000
6. PSP Madden NFL 07 - 58,000
7. GCN Madden NFL 07 - 50,000
8. NDS Madden NFL 07 - 7,000
9. GBA Madden NFL 07 - 3,000

Yep, around 1,952,000 copies of the game were sold in the USA alone. The last 50,000 of the 2 million figure reported earlier likely came from sales in Canada where Madden isn't as popular. As you can see, we Canadians aren't the only ones who don't have too much of a taste for Madden. Nintendo fans don't seem to particularly care for the series either. Oh well, let's move on to hardware.

Hardware Sales for August 2006
The Xbox is selling less and less every month now. Pretty soon, will it be gone completely? Is it only a matter of time before the same happens to the GameCube? Although people are still thinking the GCN might stand a chance of catching up to the Xbox. Who knows, maybe a couple of years down the road we'll hear an announcement saying that the GameCube did outsell the Xbox? By then we'll be well into the next generation so it won't matter much. PlayStation 2 is as strong as ever. Xbox 360 isn't doing as well as the Xbox had done by this point in time, but it's doing much better than the Xbox and GameCube had done in August 2002 (their first summer).

1. Nintendo DS - 278,000
2. PlayStation 2 - 262,000
3. Xbox 360 - 204,000
4. Game Boy Advance - 156,000
5. PlayStation Portable - 146,000
6. GameCube - 41,000
7. Xbox - 9,000

Top 10 Game Titles for August 2006
Now let's look at the game titles. There were 24 titles that sold over 50,000 copies last month. If you want to see the top 10, click on the Full Article link below!

Madden NFL 07 has become the fastest-selling Madden game in history. In its first week of release, the game sold over two million copies! This is, of course, counting all platforms and all editions of the game. If you average it out amongst the GameCube, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation2, PlayStation Portable, GBA, PC, Xbox 360 Hall of Fame Edition, and PlayStation2 Hall of Fame Edition versions (poor NGage), the game averages to about 200,000 copies per console sold. And that's A LOT.

This number is further supported by last week's Best Buy top games chart:

1. Madden NFL 07 (PS2)
2. Madden NFL 07 (360)
3. Madden NFL 07 (XBX)
4. Madden NFL 07: Hall of Fame Edition (PS2)
5. Madden NFL 07: Hall of Fame Edition (360)
6. Madden NFL 07 (PSP)
7. Madden NFL 07 (GCN)
8. Dead Rising (360)
9. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (NDS)
10. New Super Mario Bros. (NDS)

Go Go America! The 7 Maddens and Dead Rising knocked down Brain Age and Mario down after spending months at the top two slots! I wonder how the Canadian, Australian, and European charts look? For those wondering, last week's Japan Top 10 had 10 DS games with Final Fantasy III in the #1 slot with over 500,000 copies sold in five days.

For those who want to see Madden NFL '07 for the DS in action before deciding to purchase it, we aim to serve. We bring you a clip of the game uploaded by xnadu69 to show its dual-screen action. The video goes through three passing plays, and features the touchscreen coupled with the regular controls to set up a play before the snap and call audibles.

One of the features of the game Madden NFL '07 is the return of Superstar mode where you can create your own football player. You'll be the one to guide him from his rookie year toward his (and yours, perhaps) dream of becoming one of the players to be part of the Hall of Fame. Features announced for the DS, though not seen in this video, include the option to draw "hot routes" on the touchscreen and voice recognition for audibles.

EA Sports has released new screenshots of Madden NFL 07 for several consoles, including some for Nintendo's DS. It's been scheduled for an August release - you'll just have to wait a little longer to get your hands on this interesting game.

Madden NFL 07 will still have the same interesting feature as the previous game - the "Create a Superstar" mode. Creating your own NFL superstar and playing as that character all throughout the game will be possible.

Check the screenshots out and try to see if they interest you.

EA Sports' Madden NFL 07 will feature NFL MVP Shaun Alexander on the cover when the game is finally released this year. The Madden NFL title has been offering gamers a taste of what NFL is all about.

Gamers were very happy with Madden 2006 as it offered a passing game in the Quarterback Vision Control system. It also had a Superstar single player mode - gamers were able to experience a lot of aspects of an NFL superstar's life through his own eyes, including endorsement deals and minigames.

NFL MVP Shaun Alexander was chosen to be on the title's cover to represent the improved running game of the 2007 version of the game.

The Madden NFL 07 game is expected to be available for the PSP, Playstation2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube, Nintendo DS, PC and GBA this August.