First of I'd like to Thank everyone for taking the time to provide some direct feedback for NCAA Football 10 it really helps us in keeping things together instead of filtering through 100's of wish list/feedback posts on the entire game across multiple forums .

With that said I'm very interested in starting with Progression, given the initial feedback from the game and the released patch which changed it. I'm curious about what are your thoughts about the current state of progression in NCAA 10 and was the patch a step in the right direction in your opinion or not? Secondly I'd like to know what you feel is the most important aspect of a player progression both in our game and in reality (personally I feel they should be the same if not similar).

Some examples include:

• A players Potential - Some guys are just going to get good as they get older; sure playing time and coaches might help... but the kid is going to have All American talent
• The Team - Coaches and Facilities build great players; while a recruit has some ability he really can't get much better unless someone helps him along the way
• On the Field - The only thing that matters is what you do on Saturday (or any other day the Sun Belt schedules a game ); meaning that his stats drive how good he can be.

I'll be reading through every post here in my new NCAA Football sub forum and we will have a Live Chat in the near future on this topic, so if you have questions put them in your post. I'll try and get some free time to post as well, but we are working hard on the game right now.

Hello. I'm new to this blog. People in the office call me Jorge. I've been around the EA-Tiburon offices since 2000. Like a lot of folks who work in the gaming industry I started in QA as a tester. A year and a half after starting with QA I moved in with the Marketing department. I took the screenshots and video you saw online, in magazines, and in TV commercials for all of EA-Tiburon's products.

Recently I've moved into more of a support role within EA SPORTS itself. I was asked if I wanted to contribute to the EA SPORTS blog with gaming commentary. It was made clear, my topics aren't to focus on sports or sports gaming, just gaming. This offer makes a lot of people in the office nervous because I tend to say things that would make me a PR nightmare, so I jumped at the chance.

For my first blog I'd thought I'd pull back the curtain and show you some information I provide internally here at EA SPORTS. Every month NPD provides sales figures for console hardware and software. It's kinda my favorite part of the month. So I take the information NPD releases and put in my two cents for folks to digest. Some people find it useful, some don't. Why the discrepancy? Even though NPD and I both look at the numbers by individual sku, folks in the industry really only care about combined sales. So X360 fanboys may want to chest bump over Borderlands selling more on their system, but Gearbox only cares that it sold a combined 531,000 units on both consoles (added to whatever it sold on PC).

Software

Sales are way down year-over-year. The strange thing is that even though the market is hurting, new IPs are breaking out. I think Borderlands is just another example of how shooter happy Xbox 360 owners are. Borderlands was dropped in-between ODST and Modern Warfare 2 and still sold a bunch.

1.       Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

How does Naughty Dog lose their way with the Jax series and then make such an incredible game? Good for them.

2.       Wii Fit Plus (Wii)

$20 gets you a bunch of exercises only a soccer mom could love. Taking bets at my desk to how long this stays in the top ten.

3.       Borderlands (X360)

The game 'sent to die' knocks it out of the park. Now, somebody get Randy Pitchford his medication. He's become 2009's Denis Dyack.

4.       Wii Sports Resort (Wii)

Nintendo's plan to seed houses with MotionPlus devices is working. Now, what's the next game from Nintendo that'll actually use it?

5.       NBA 2k10 (X360)

I'm guessing there's about three hundred thousand fans who wish reviewers would have mentioned NBA 2k's online issues.

6.       Halo 3: ODST (X360)

ODST has sold 1.8 million units after two months. Less than half of what Halo 3 sold during the same time period. Not that anybody's counting.

7.       NBA 2k10 (PS3)

Wait, forgot to include PS3 owners. Make that half a million basketball fans who are having online issues.

8.       Forza Motorsport 3 (X360)

Better, cleaner, deeper . . . Turn 10 knocks it out of the park. But it's another example of sales that are lower than the previous version.

9.       Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS)

This brings its total to 370,230 copies after two months. Yoichi Wada has to be excited about that number.

10.   FIFA Soccer 10 (X360)

Whoa, there's soccer fans in this country?

11.   Demon's Souls (PS3)

How does the most hardcore game to come out this year sell so well? PlayStation 3 owners are an eclectic bunch. Odds 3D Dot Game Heroes does this well next year?

12.   Brutal Legend (X360)

An eye opener and a half. I'm halfway through this game and it's awesome. What's Tim Schafer got to do to get a winner on his hands?

13.   FIFA Soccer 10 (PS3)

You know what this proves? There are a higher percentage of soccer fans amongst PlayStation 3 owners than Xbox 360 owners. That's all.

14.   Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)

Almost four hundred thousand units in two months for a Mario RPG? Man, Nintendo must be glowing right now.

15.   WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 (X360)

High review scores, strong marketing push . . . disappointing sales. Not a good time for THQ during their licensing contract negotiations either.

16.   Tekken 6 (PS3)

Yes, Tekken is historically a PlayStation franchise, but it's still always surprising when the PS3 is the lead sku. Sales being lower than WWE, though, is a real bad sign for them.

17.   Borderlands (PS3)

Proving once again that PlayStation 3 owners aren't into shooters like Xbox 360 consumers.

18.   Madden NFL 10 (X360)

Three months in and hanging tough. Can't wait to see fan reaction to playing Ultimate Team.

19.   Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky (DS)

This underwhelming first month of sales is only a hiccup for the popular brand. My guess is that poor reviews are likely keeping this Pokemon title down.

20.   Mario Kart Wii (Wii)

The lowest rated Mario Kart in history continues to sell even when Wii Play has disappeared off the chart.

The Global Challenge results are now in, with The World team taking the title! It was an extremely close battle with The World team winning by .18 of a stroke. The final score was North America with an average of 16 -under par and The World at 16.18 -under par. Thank you to everyone that participated in the Global challenge and a special thanks to the team captains for keeping everything organized.  World team, you are now the official Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Global Champions! I'm sure the North America team will be looking for a rematch in the near future...

On that note, we would like to announce the beginning of the Champions of Gaming tournament sponsored by Gillette. The Second Annual "Gillette - EA SPORTS Champions of Gaming Tournament on Xbox 360," the world's largest multi-sport online gaming competition pits gamers from around the globe against each other. The winners will get to compete against some of the biggest names in the world of sports, including Gillette Champion Tiger Woods. The event starts on 11/18/2009 and concludes in March 2010 where the Regional Champions from North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific will compete against each other for the chance to play Tiger Woods! Check here for rules and more information - http://www.easports.com/gillette/game/tiger

Final Global Challenge Statistics

North America

Xbox 360 Average Score = -15.99

PS3 Average Score = -16.02

Overall Average Score = -16.0

Best Score

NYBLAKE1 = -25

Dendo = -25

World

Xbox 360 Average Score = -16.32

PS3 Average Score = -16.04

Overall Average Score = -16.18

Best Score

ASTRONUT = -25

Leaderboards

Thanks again for participating in the Global Challenge. Now get ready for the Xbox 360 Champions of Gaming event starting this week. Amazing prizes with the chance to play against Tiger Woods himself! Good Luck to all!

-Christian Brandt

It's a bit of a landmark week for the weekly FIFA 10 podcast - episode 40. That's a lot of audio...

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes here, but you'd probably do best to just listen to the latest one!

This week's show features the first Live Season 2.0 weekly update of the FIFA 10 era - dominated as the team of the week is by Italians. That's joined by a Newcastle-related Fact of the Week in line with the news their venerable old Stadium is to be preposterously renamed the "sportsdirect.com @ St James's Park Stadium". And of course we have the Big Shout in which we ask you lot what's more valuable - the Champions League or the Premier League.

Have a listen to Episode 40 right here.

The Games Village has defended their crown for the 5^th straight time to be officially called the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2010 King of the Hill Champions! They won the very first week of the Club challenge and then outlasted the Caddysharks, FTWG, K2 Spotted (twice), and now the BDGA League in King of the Hill matches.

The Games Village defeated BDGA by an average score of -23.28 to -21, only a 2.2 stroke difference. Final results posted below. Congratulations to the Games Village for becoming the overall Club vs. Club Champions.

Thank you to all the teams that have participated during the last 6 weeks! It's now time to try something new within the Community Appreciation Channel. I'm pleased to announce the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2010 Global Challenge! It will be a battle between North America and The World! There will be two teams matched up against each other for the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Global Cup Trophy.

All Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Xbox 360 and PS3 players are eligible! Represent your country and bring home the Tiger Woods Global Trophy! A TW North America Team and TW World Team have been created on facebook. Join whichever team that you fit into. For example, if you are from the United States then you join the North America Team and if you are from Europe then you join the World Team. Please post your Gamertag/PS3 ID on the team page to be added to the team. I'm still looking for a few Team Captains to help recruit players and run the team pages, if you're interested then send a message to Ea Brandt on facebook or through the forums.

Team Links:

TW North America Team

TW World Team

Team building/recruiting will last 1 week. Now get out there and join a team to represent your country in the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2010 Global Challenge!

King of the Hill Final Results:

Thanks again to all the teams that have played in the Club Challenge! Make sure to stay tuned for updates, but for now get out there and join a team for the Global Challenge. Also keep an eye on the community appreciation channel for fun new events daily. See you on the links! We will be holding a Live Chat this Wednesday from 3-4pm EST based on your feedback on ways to expand our Community Appreciation Tournaments. Be on the lookout for the Live Chat feed on EASPORTS.com.