The National Football League Players Association has been ordered to pay retired NFL players $28.1 million following a legal dispute over royalties, including unpaid licensing profits from Electronic Arts' Madden series.

A San Francisco federal court passed a $7.1 million judgment in favor of the players last November. This new lawsuit, filed on behalf of 2,062 former NFL players, adds $21 million in damages to the total sum, according to Bloomberg.

The retired players were used in Madden recreations of classic NFL teams. The NFLPA argued that the retired players were not covered under its exclusive licensing deal with Electronic Arts.

When Michael's son bought a copy of Madden NFL 09 using his Christmas money, the wee lad got both more and less than he bargained for.

Instead of an Xbox 360 disc and accompanying manual, the son found a blank disc labeled "Redneck Shit," reports The Consumerist.

Though the game packaging sported all of the usual security stickers, Michael found that scotch tape was used to re-seal the game's shinkwrap, leading him to believe that someone else bought the game and returned it, sans disc, to his local Walmart.

The duo is expected to swap "Redneck Shit" for a genuine copy of Madden today.

The Pittsburgh Steelers will win this year's Super Bowl, beating out the Arizona Cardinals 28-24, according to a simulation run by Madden publisher EA Sports.

Utilizing the latest stats for each team, EA ran the simulation in Madden NFL 09.

EA's annual Super Bowl simulations are said to be surprisingly accurate, and have reportedly predicted the actual Super Bowl champion 4 times in 5 years. However, it got last year wrong, picking the New England Patriots to beat the New York Giants.

As for this year? We'll find out when Super Bowl XLIII (43) kicks off February 1.

In-game advertisements for Democratic president candidate Barack Obama are running in more than just the Xbox 360 version of Burnout Paradise, with publisher EA confirming to AP that the ads will now appear across 10 titles, including Madden NFL 09.

Furthermore, the Obama ads are geographically targeted to 10 "battleground states"--Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Colorado, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wisconsin--according to GameSpot.

The advertisements will run up until November 3, the eve of the election. They will only appear in the Xbox 360 editions of the games as Microsoft subsidiary Massive handled their placement, while rival IGA Worldwide handles PS3 in-game ads.

In addition to Obama, Massive approached Republican presidential candidate John McCain with the prospect of in-game ads, though it appears his campaign declined.

NFL Hall of Famer turned actor Jim Brown has sued game makers Electronic Arts and Sony regarding his alleged appearance in the Madden NFL series, seeking to halt game sales and obtain all profits derived from any Madden games with his likeness.

The suit stems from Brown's recent discovery that a Cleveland Browns player using his number, but not his face or name, appeared in Madden NFL 2001, reports GameSpot.

Brown describes the character as "a muscular African American player," claiming that this hurts his "inherently distinctive, and arbitrary trademark as the All-Time Great Cleveland Brown Running Back."

The one-time Cleveland Browns number 32 claims that he "never signed away any rights that would allow his likeness to be used [in a video game]" and that both companies "unjustly enriched and have received and continue to... Read more

Demos of EA Canada's FaceBreaker and EA Tiburon's Madden NFL 09 are now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace in all regions.

The demo of Madden NFL 09 is a 1.09GB download, and does not feature a real game. Instead, you take the "Madden Test", a mini-game using the game's holographic interface.

This year's Madden NFL will be in stores August 12 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP.

Meanwhile, a 955MB download will net you the demo for the arcade boxing game FaceBreaker. The demo contains a Fight mode with a selection of three characters and two rings, playable solo or with a friend (offline only). Additionally you can create your own character in the Boxer Factory, which then also can be used in the Fight mode.

FaceBreaker will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii (as FaceBreaker K.O. Party) in September.

Two gamers have filed a class-action lawsuit against Madden publisher Electronic Arts. Filed in the US District Court of Northern California, the suit states that EA's 2004 and 2005 obtainment of the exclusive NFL, AFL and NCAA licenses constitutes "blatantly anticompetitive conduct."

In response to the allegations, the duo wish to see EA surrender the profits that stemmed from those actions, the voiding of the exclusivity contracts, and restitutions offered to those that have purchased any EA-branded football game since 2005.

EA's exclusivity arrangements came after publisher 2K Sports debuted a competing football title, NFL 2K5, at $19.99 in 2004, causing EA to drop the price on Madden 2005 from $49.99 to $29.99.

"This vigorous competition benefited consumers," claim court documents obtained by GameSpot. "Electronic Arts could have continued to compete by offering a lower price and/or a higher quality product. Instead, Electronic Arts quickly entered into a series of exclusive agreements with the only viable sports football associations."

Only one 2K Sports-branded football title has been released since then, the league-less All-Pro Football 2K8, which sold just over a quarter of a million units.

Following up on yesterday's reports, publisher Electronic Arts has publicly announced that retired Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre will be featured on the cover of Madden NFL 09.

Set to arrive August 12, this year's iteration of the EA Tiburon-developed football franchise will hit PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP. A PC version will not be released due to the platform's "serious business challenges."

As Favre is the first retired player to be featured on a Madden cover, it is believed that his status will make him exempt from the fabled Madden curse, which is said to result in injuries or a poor seasonal performance for the game's cover athletes.

GameDaily is reporting that the coveted cover shot of EA Tiburon's Madden NFL 09 will be going to recently retired Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.

The report cites an announcement on the Madden NFL 09 Facebook page which states that the cover athlete is expected to be announced tomorrow, April 25. Favre is scheduled to be on tonight's episode of the Late Show with David Letterman.

GameDaily suggests that, similar to previous years, Favre will make the announcement of the Madden cover during his appearance tonight's Late Show. EA has previously used late-night shows to announce the Madden cover, such as Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young's Madden 08 announcement last year on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Should the report prove accurate, an official announcement from EA will most likely be issued tomorrow morning.

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.

Electronic Arts announced today that the latest update to its long-running football franchise Madden NFL 09 will be released on August 12.

The publisher also announced that the Madden NFL 09 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition will feature full versions of the game itself as well as NFL Head Coach 09, which ships exclusively with the collector's edition. The two titles are designed to interact with one another, allowing for plays created in Head Coach to be used in Madden 09.

The collector's edition is also said to include "exclusive classic Madden NFL gameplay" and bonus video content. In the past, EA had bundled past iterations of the Madden series in the limited edition of its releases.

Madden NFL 09 will be available for the Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP on the aforementioned August 12 release date. The 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition will ship for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on the same day, priced at $89.99.