What does it mean to EA Sports to know that Brett Favre has thrown more than 7.5 million interceptions in Madden games since the company compiled such statistics in 2004?

Or, what does it mean to the company to know that they put in 330 plays and the average person uses 13? It was some of those statistics that were revealed Tuesday night at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The company said the goal, by gathering all of this data, gives them an idea of how to craft better Madden titles for the future. They pull the data from online play (according to them, about 4.5 million people are playing online).

Some of the revalations are fascinating. When it comes to play selection, 13 doesn't seem like an off number. At 330, that's only 3.9 percent of the total plays. I can name six of the 13 plays that were likely used (a seventh is probably the Hail Mary), which leaves seven (or six) others to a player's preference.

They also talked about stiff arms (barely worked), hit sticks (nearly 50-50, which is what it should be) and time of a game (way too long).

IGN has more on its Web site:

EA Sports let out a few random pieces of information about Madden NFL 11 at their Season Opener event tonight in San Francisco. During a lengthy presentation about sports franchises the sports conglomerate made it very clear that they're listening to fans, both on forums and through online data tracking services when constructing this year's flock of titles. The most interesting points in the slew of information had to do with the length of games in Madden NFL 10 and how the company is going to try and make this year's game a "simpler, quicker and deeper experience." While I won't try to decipher how they'll go about making football both simpler and deeper, it's clear that they're going to try and speed up the traditional game of football for Madden NFL 11.

The average game took 63 minutes in Madden NFL 10, despite the fact that players were only playing football for 17 of those minutes. EA Sports promised that they'll deliver a faster experience in Madden NFL 11 for those who want to sit down and play for a few minutes and then get up and move on to the next activity. They gave no indication of how this would be accomplished, but if I was a betting man, I'd wager that they'll be adding a "hurry up" option to the list of presentation settings similar to what we see in this year's crop of MLB titles.

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