Decision 2012: EA Sports Bringing Back Fan Vote To Determine "Madden" Cover

EA Sports Thursday night announced it is reviving its fan cover vote for the upcoming release of "Madden NFL 13," expanding the program that generated 12.7 million votes last year and yielded Browns RB Peyton Hillis as the current cover athlete. The second iteration of the "Madden" cover vote will feature a "play-in" round featuring two players from each NFL team, lasting from March 7-21. After that initial round, a 32-player bracket will again be used, with one player representing each team. As was the case last year, EA Sports will run the "Madden" cover vote in partnership with ESPN and its "SportsNation" program, with heavy promotion also occurring on the video game publisher's Facebook page.

STRONG SALES FOR NBA GAME: Take-Two Interactive Inc., the parent company of 2K Sports, said late Thursday in its fiscal Q3 earnings report it has sold nearly 4 million units of "NBA 2K12" to date. The total is roughly equal to the sales total for last year's version of the NBA simulation video game title at this point in the calendar, and again ranks among the best-selling titles in company history. During the NBA's labor acrimony of this past summer and fall, there had been significant concern among Take-Two execs regarding a potential dropoff in sales for "NBA 2K12." Such a sales slowdown did occur immediately after the game's Oct. 4 release date, hurting company earnings during the quarter, said Take-Two Chair & CEO Strauss Zelnick. Sales of the game began to recover after the NBA reached its labor deal in late November. Overall, Take-Two reported $14.1M in net income, down 66% from $40.9M in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue fell 29% to $236.3M.