Madden gridiron game coming to Facebook

Electronic Arts is bringing its popular "Madden" gridiron game to Facebook.

"Madden NFL Superstars" launches as a free application on Tuesday.

The game lets players create fantasy teams featuring more than 1,500 current NFL players from this year's team rosters. The fantasy teams compete with one another on Facebook. Or, they can play against fantasy versions of the season's actual NFL teams.

Electronic Arts plans to make money from the game by letting players pay nominal amounts of money for better players and other game content. Those microtransactions are expected to add up, though the majority of players are expected to play the game without paying a dime.

"NFL Superstars," which comes a week before the football season kicks off, follows EA's "Fifa Superstars" soccer game for Facebook. That game has about 4 million players.

EA Sports President Peter Moore said the idea is to bring "Madden" to a broader audience beyond the fans of the console version, which sells about 5 million to 6 million units each year and can be complicated to play.

"NFL Superstars" was created by EA Sports and Playfish, the social game company EA bought last year for US$275 million (NZ$389 million).

- AP