EA Makes Play for Serious Football Fans in New Madden Title

EA is hoping to extend Madden's reach by introducing fantasy football elements to the game's 2009 iteration.

Madden 2009 will offer some free - and other pay-only - online services on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live designed to appeal to hardcore football fans.

"Exclusive to EA Sports Fantasy Football customers, gamers will have the ability to download the EA Sports Fantasy Football Live Draft Tracker application and experience a fantasy draft that includes all of the fanfare and presentation of an authentic professional football draft on their Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3," EA said.

The company said video clips and expert commentary will be featured, in addition to draft selection and team-tracking applications.

Will spruced-up versions of features already available at established fantasy football websites be enough entice gamers to shell out for the game? We shall see.

EA was recently sued by two U.S. gamers for anticompetitive practices, as it holds exclusive rights to produce games with the NFL license.

Source: ArsTechnica.com