As FIFA launched throughout Europe this week and hundreds of thousands of gamers began competing from London to Madrid, Barcelona to Frankfurt, I want to send my congratulations to our FIFA development and marketing teams in Vancouver and Geneva.  In fact, I had a friendly little wager with FIFA producer Dave Rutter (the terms of which will remain between he and I) about rewarding the team if the game was above 90 for its average review scores on launch day…and here we are on October 2 with the highest rated sports game of this console generation at a 92…well done team.

It’s always a challenge to improve on an already universally-acclaimed game, as was the case with FIFA 09, but the team at EAC continued to innovate and add polish to the jewel. I had the pleasure of meeting with them in Vancouver this past week, and passed on my thanks and admiration on behalf of all footie gamers from around the world.

We asked “How Big Can Football Get?” when we recently launched a brilliant new TV campaign in the UK, and we’re all anxious to see the answer to that question over the coming weeks.  I’d love to hear what you think of the game - please let me know.  And for those of you in North America, you just have to wait a few more weeks to join in.

Should be an exciting sports weekend - today I’ll be in Berkeley to see if the Cal Bears can rebound from an abysmal performance in Eugene when they host USC. If Kevin Riley can regain his confidence and complete some passes early, maybe we will be able to get Jahvid Best going and put the Trojans on the back foot. If not, we’ll be hearing that annoying USC fight song all evening long… And on Sunday, Liverpool plays Chelsea. Up early to watch that one, and looking for my Mighty Reds to rebound from the poor showing in Florence in midweek.  I’ll actually be at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s home stadium in London on Wednesday delivering a keynote address to executives from across the world of football, so let’s hope they welcome me still if Liverpool takes the win. The speech focuses on how sports marketing is rapidly evolving, using FIFA 10 as a best practice case study.

I couldn’t be more excited by how well NHL 10 has been received, the overwhelming interest in FIFA’s big launch this week in Europe, and the quality of NBA LIVE, which hits stores next week here in North America ready to put up a fight against what is always stiff competition.