Madden NFL 2004 smashes EA sales records

Electronic Arts' Madden NFL 2005 has broken the company's own sales records, with the title selling some 1.35 million units across five platforms in its first week on sale in North America.

That's the fastest start ever for the series, which is this year celebrating its 15th consecutive year of release - the first Madden annual revision was launched in 1989, and there's been one every year since then.

Notably, the game is also driving the uptake of console online services in the USA. This is the first time that the game has been playable on Xbox Live, and the second time that it's been online on the PS2; EA claims that 315,000 new online user accounts have been registered between Madden 2005 and NCAA Football 2005 so far this year.