Depending on who you ask, there are several different answers for when football season "starts" in America. For some, it's when summer practices begin. For others, it's when the pre-season polls come out and bragging rights can truly start. For many, many gamers, however, football season really begins with the release of NCAA Football from EA Sports.

Now, some who lean towards the pro game think that football fever doesn't hit until Madden comes out. While Madden is truly EA's lynchpin release for the year, NCAA Football is doubtlessly a success as well, and certainly has its own share of fanatical fans. This is no more evident than the fact that NCAA Football topped the July charts for yet another year.

We talked with Kendall Boyd, Senior Product Manager of NCAA Football at Tiburon, who let us know everything we wanted (and maybe a little more) about NCAA Football

The tale of the sales tape
According to the NPD, NCAA Football 09 had three entries in July's top 11 games, including the top slot. The game was the best selling title on PS2, PS3, PSP and the Xbox 360 systems. NCAA Football 09 sold roughly 640,000 copies on Xbox 360 and PS3 alone, with total sales for the game were approximately 800,000.

Total sales for the NCAA Football franchise were mostly flat year-on-year. All yearly franchises suffer a bit during console transitions, and NCAA Football is no different; while EA Sports could rely upon the established PS2 and Xbox to carry the game only a few years ago, the PS2's significance has faded a bit, while the Xbox has completely exited the stage. The numbers seem to suggest that the PS2 release of NCAA Football is taking more of a secondary role (although sales are very respectable for a console in its ninth year) while the PS3 is making it's increased user-base felt. Notably, the Wii version of NCAA Football failed to crack the top ten Wii titles for the month, let alone the Top 20 games overall for the month.

From an epic about a team to the story of a star
The Xs and Os of college football aren't going to change much year in and year out, but that doesn't mean that new features can't be added to NCAA Football. Online play is a popular feature for the NCAA Football franchise, but this year's incarnation features an online dynasty mode for the first time. Between this feature, and the ability to upload player created teams and custom sounds, and you have a lot of potential longevity for the game.

"When the NCAA Football franchise made its first transition over to the Xbox 360 and PS3 there was a lot of talk, both internally and especially from the media about expectations of a possible Online Dynasty mode," commented Boyd. "At its core, NCAA Football has always been about the ability to recruit, schedule and in the old days play against your friends in a multi-user Dynasty (many still do this of course). I've heard stories of fans mailing memory cards to one another to run their leagues, so this was the natural progression for the franchise with the increased penetration of online users becoming more prevalent with next gen. It was definitely a major implementation for the Tiburon dev team that has definitely paid off for us in the end as we now have a full fledged Dynasty mode for up to 12 people online."

The Hokies take the field at Lane Stadium!

"[The ability to upload players] definitely is a feature that can help the longevity," he continued. "It is a really cool customization feature that compliments everything else in the overall package. I think when you look at video games, not just sports games, any game that allows you to personalize your experience like the Sims or a game like Spore it is a proven formula for success. It really allows the consumer to identify with their game and make it their own. So in the instance of customizing your roster, if I wanted to relive my glory days with my class of '94 teammates from high school, I can do this - or maybe I want to create a fantasy team of players. Again, we want the fan to have options and some creative freedom."

"While [custom sounds] may not be a feature that the average fan will immediately check out, we're pretty confident that our core audience loves it," he added. "Much like the custom roster scenario, college football fans are VERY passionate about their school. And each of these schools have their own game day traditions. NCAA Football has always done a great job of providing authentic school fight songs for each school, but if you've ever experienced a college game first hand you know that each school plays all sorts of music and sounds to try to create the ultimate atmosphere. That is where this mode is incredibly addictive. I found myself looking at my alma matter's message boards so I could re-create the perfect game day experience - and what was even cooler, was the fact that fans were already out there creating these pages specifically for NCAA Football 09 before the game even shipped."

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