Ozzy to rock Madden NFL fans

By M&C News May 23, 2007, 14:02 GMT

"Ozzy Osbourne has continued to draw fans both young and old across five decades with his legendary rock voice, so to be able to include "I Don\'t Wanna Stop", the first single off ‘Black Rain’ which is currently Ozzy\'s biggest rock radio single ever within Madden NFL 08 - the biggest selling sports video game in America - is another fantastic addition to the campaign," said Scott Greer, Vice President Marketing of Epic Records.

Pop culture icons unite as Ozzy Osbourne's newly released “I Don't Wanna Stop” single was revealed to be the first song in the EA SPORTS Madden NFL 08 in-game soundtrack. Electronic Arts Inc. punctuates the scene every year with the Madden NFL videogame soundtrack and has demonstrated a proven track record in breaking new bands and partnering with music legends innovating with their music. The full Madden NFL 08 soundtrack list will be revealed in the coming weeks.

EA will work with Epic Records on coordinated marketing activities through the release of Ozzy's new album ‘Black Rain,’ now available, and the release of Madden NFL 08, available on August 14. ‘Black Rain’ is the highly-anticipated first album of new studio material released by Ozzy Osbourne in six years. Last year's Madden NFL 07 sold over 7 million copies at retail and was the number one selling game in North America in 2006.

"The anticipation for both Ozzy's album and this year's Madden NFL creates a perfect storm of excitement which made ‘I Don't Want to Stop’ an ideal lead song for the Madden NFL 08 soundtrack," said Steve Schnur, EA's Worldwide Executive of Music and Marketing.  "Now, The Prince of Darkness meets The King of Videogames and we're enormously proud to have a killer new song from a legendary artist as our first announced track. This is going to be the biggest, wildest and best Madden NFL soundtrack yet."

Internal EA research has shown that songs featured in past Madden NFL Football iterations have received more than 1 billion 'spins' each, through typical gameplay of Madden NFL Football.

"Ozzy Osbourne has continued to draw fans both young and old across five decades with his legendary rock voice, so to be able to include "I Don't Wanna Stop", the first single off ‘Black Rain’ which is currently Ozzy's biggest rock radio single ever within Madden NFL 08 - the biggest selling sports video game in America - is another fantastic addition to the campaign," said Scott Greer, Vice President Marketing of Epic Records.

Coming into its 18th year and with more than 60 million2 copies sold and having generated over $2 billion in retail sales, Madden NFL Football continues to stand out as one of the most popular videogame franchises of all time. Developed in Orlando, FL by EA Tiburon, Madden NFL 08 will be available in August on the Xbox 360(tm) and Xbox(r) videogame and entertainment systems from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION(r)3 and
PlayStation(r)2 computer entertainment systems, Nintendo GameCube(tm), Nintendo DS(tm), Wii(tm), PC, PSP(r) (PlayStation(r)Portable) handheld entertainment system.