Funny how free enterprise works.

Electronic Arts Inc. said Thursday that sales of its latest Madden football video game grossed more than $100 million in its first week, the biggest launch in the franchise’s 17-year history and the latest sign of an improving outlook for the industry.

No, it’s the latest sign of how Eliminating or Buying Out All Competition Will Improve Your Freakin Sales. When ESPN released an arguably better NFL football game a few years ago at the finally affordable price of $20 retail, the EA executives let out a collective “Oh Fudge”. Their years of scamming $50 from the gaming community every August for what amounted to an upgrade in rosters was finally exposed.

Okay, upgrade in rosters and a few more cheerleaders on the sidelines. Whatever.

The response at the EA developers meeting was immediate. “We will double our efforts to produce the greatest football experience known to the world. Our product will improve 10-fold!”

Then corporate stepped in and said “Don’t bother. We’ll just buy out the competition and you can go back to updating the rosters. Add a few more cheerleaders. They like that.”

That’s when the exclusive multi-gazillion dollar deal began between EA and the NFL. That’s when all other football games that didn’t already have an exclusive deal with a player had to stop using real NFL names unless they paid EA.

And that’s business. Best launch in the 17-year history? Really. Wow. Didn’t see that coming.