Sports Nation numbers rise

Electronic Arts said today that since the August release of Madden NFL 2004 and NCAA Football 2004, 250,000 new accounts have been registered at EASportsOnline.com, home of the EA Sports Nation.

EA Sports credits the two titles as the reason for the new registers, adding that it anticipates a number of new accounts next week with the release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, NASCAR Thunder 2004, and NHL 2004. Additionally, in October, EA Sports will release NBA Live 2004 and FIFA Soccer 2004, with NCAA March Madness 2004 and MVP Baseball 2004 to follow thereafter.

The company generally exhibits spikes in growth during this time of year. "Last year, more than 500,000 players registered to be matched on EA Sports titles," added senior vice president of marketing Frank Gibeau.

EA Sports Nation is a PS2-exclusive service that supports matchmaking and head-to-head online play, complemented by tournaments and ladders, leader boards and rankings, downloadable rosters and team updates, and instant messaging with real-time voice chat (dubbed "EA Sports Talk"). EA Sports announced that on September 14 the simultaneous players of Madden NFL 2004 peaked at more than 7,000.

EA Sports also stated that Madden NFL 2004 is the top-selling football title on Xbox. The Xbox version does not support online play via Xbox Live because online play for EA Sports titles is exclusive to PlayStation 2.