EA Sports president Peter Moore confirmed today that Madden NFL 09 will not be released on the PC, citing challenges in bringing sports titles to the platform.

The PC was conspicuously absent in the announcement of Madden 09, which is being brought to virtually every other platform on the market. Writing on his official blog, Moore said that the company was aware that the decision to not develop the latest Madden for the PC would not be a popular one.

"The PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii," Moore wrote. "We are committed to shipping a limited number of our games on the PC this year, but we've also had to cut a few of our games from the platform."

"We do have ideas for how to revitalize the PC for sports games and the types of games that are best suited to the platform," he added. "And we'll continue to explore those."

Madden NFL 09 is due for release on August 12. A collector's edition, which includes NFL Head Coach 09, will also be released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on the same day.

In his second day on the job, new EA Sports head Peter Moore was in a light-hearted mood as he spoke to the press at an EA event. Throughout the proceedings today, Moore poked fun at both himself and his tenure as the head of Microsoft's entertainment division, before revealing a new sports trivia-based online game for the PC.

As Moore demonstrated the face-sculpting feature in EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour--using a character modeled on a photograph of himself (left)--the man who was once the public face of the Xbox 360 mocked his classic effigy.

"I hate that picture," Moore told the audience. "I've got a shit-eating grin that annoys even me."

Moving on, Moore confirmed that the NHL, NBA, and FIFA franchises will all be coming to the PlayStation 3 this year. "All making their... Read more

Update: An SEC filing from Electronic Arts today revealed Peter Moore's salary at his upcoming position to be $550,000 per year, with a potential annual bonus of $412,500. And the kicker: a one-time signing bonus of $1.5 million. Other perks include $330,000 for relocation, a stock option of 350,000 shares, and 50,000 restricted shares.

Original story: Electronic Arts and Microsoft have announced that outspoken Microsoft VP Peter Moore (pictured left) will leave his position at the Redmond-based Xbox manufacturer to take a post as president of EA Sports. Moore will relocate to EA's Redwood Shores headquarters as a result of the move, and will begin his new job in September.

Replacing Moore at Microsoft will be Don Mattrick (pictured right), a longtime EA executive who has for the past six months been serving as an external advisor to Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, where Moore served as corporate VP. Mattrick will take his position at Microsoft on July 30.

Moore headed up the Xbox and Games for Windows businesses... Read more

Nintendo today announced the next iteration of its popular Mario Kart racing series. Mario Kart Wii will ship in North America in the first quarter of 2008, and will feature online support over the free Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection network. The game will come packaged with steering wheel hardware.

Nintendo also announced that the EA Sports titles Madden NFL 08 and FIFA 08 will feature online play on Wii when they ship this fall. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime pointed to features such as FIFA 08's online interactive leagues, and exclusive mini-games utilizing Mii avatars.

Additionally, Nintendo confirmed that the Wii version of Neversoft's Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock will feature online play.

Wii Ware, Nintendo's nascent download service for original, non-Virtual Console games on Wii, will launch next year, according to Fils-Aime.

Troy Wolverton of TheStreet.com has written an article describing the uphill battle faced by companies like Take-Two when trying to gain ground in the EA-dominated sports market. Sports comprise more than 19% of video game sales, and EA sports titles make up 62% of that. When Take-Two and Sega teamed up to put out the ESPN 2K line, they forced EA to cut prices, and succeeded in taking momentum away from the larger company's sports domination. However, EA simply followed up by securing exclusivity with the NFL, the NCAA, the AFL, and even ESPN. Take-Two has managed to secure the exclusive rights to make third-party Major League Baseball games, but analyst Michael Goodman believes that baseball games do not sell well enough to build a brand like football can.

"I don't believe baseball, hockey or basketball are popular enough to build a brand around," says Goodman. "They have a fan base, but I don't believe they're big enough to build an entire corporate identity." The loss of the ESPN brand represents a further challenge for Take-Two, forcing the company to essentially begin brand-building from scratch. That's in contrast to EA, which just put out the 16th version of its Madden. ...Take-Two also faces a well-financed competitor. EA is rumored to have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get the exclusive on the NFL game. And if the company feels under threat in the other sports areas, it may well decide to throw money at them as well.

Everyone knows that EA is the world's biggest video game publisher and that their sports label is a key brand, but it is nonetheless unnerving to see a publisher able to effectively negate its competition simply by virtue of having enough money to ensure its competition can't even make a certain category of games.