Sony Computer Entertainment America today announced the Madden NFL 09 PSP Entertainment Pack. This bundle will feature a limited-edition “Metallic Blue” PSP system with the Madden NFL 09 game, “NFL: In Just One Play” UMD Video from NFL Films, a voucher to download the PSN exclusive title Beats rhythm game, and a 1GB Memory Stick.

The “NFL: In Just One Play” UMD is hosted by current Cincinnati Bengal’s wide receiver, Chad Johnson, and features a close look inside the NFL and some of its most explosive players.

“Sports games are one of the most popular types of games among PSP owners, and it was only natural to make our next PSP Entertainment Pack a sports-themed bundle,” said Scott A. Steinberg, vice president of product marketing for SCEA. “PSP continues to have great momentum in the marketplace. We expect that the Madden NFL 09 PSP Entertainment Pack will capitalize on this momentum and strengthen PlayStation’s presence in the sports genre.”

The Madden NFL 09 PSP Entertainment Pack will be available August 12 for $199.99.

Source: Joystiq

EA has announced that former Green Bay Packers quarterback, Brett Favre, will grace the cover of the next installment of the Madden NFL franchise.

Colourfully entitled Madden NFL 09, the game marks the twentieth anniversary for the series. I presume EA were thinking that seeing as everyone is celebrating Favre’s career at the moment, they may as well try and crash the party and have the fans celebrate twenty years of Madden as well. Or maybe it’s just because Madden it getting on in years and Favre is too… sorry, Brett.

Much has been made about the so-called “Madden Curse” in which the athlete that appears on the cover for a given year will invariably suffer a season ending injury, or just perform well beyond their expected level.

Recently Shaun Alexander and Donovan McNabb are prime examples of this phenomenon, with Vince Young (Madden’s 08 cover player) also not having the year many expected of him last season. I like Vince Young though so I’m not going to say too much about that. McNabb and Alexander though… yeah they do kinda suck nowadays.

With Favre’s retirement at the end of last season, the “curse” will probably not be a problem for him. I say probably because many pro sportsman seem to have a different interpretation from the rest of us as to the meaning of the word “retirement”.

To go along with this announcement EA has also released a trailer, of sorts, for Madden 09. The video features a nostalgic look at the past twenty years of the series, focusing on Brett Favre and his different incarnations within the game, ending with a few tantalising glimpses of Madden 09 itself during a snowy game at the home of the Green Bay Packers, Lambeau Field.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of the future Hall of Famer, and I’m happy that he’s going to be on the cover of the game before he ceases to be anything more than a fond memory.

Madden NFL 09 is set for an August 12th release for pretty much every system known to man, aside from the PC.

Madden ‘09 is the first casualty of the cull, which is apparently because we love our consoles too much.

We had wondered whether last week’s decision not to ship Madden for PC might be an isolated incident, but not so. Speaking on his blog, EA Sports head Peter Moore said:

The PC presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favourite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

He goes on to say a limited number of titles will be released on PC this year, but without an indication of which ones, and whether that means they’re slowly winding down or just keeping the few bestsellers.

Meanwhile, if you are at this moment spewing vitriol or letting the tears cascade down your face, at least there’s a caveat; PC appears to be getting a suspension rather than a lifelong ban.

Moore promises:

We do have ideas for how to revitalise the PC for sports games and the types of games that are best suited to the platform, and we’ll continue to explore those.

Of course he’s yet to respond to the outraged Madden community about whens and hows.

His comments are buried in this post over at EA