"As the world's largest supplier of flash cards, SanDisk is pleased to join with the world's largest independent developer of videogames to bring this special opportunity to consumers," said Nelson Chan, SanDisk's executive vice president and general manager for consumer and handset business.

Contained in a feature called Game Save, the bonus content will be available on SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo Game cards that are distributed in North America. There is no additional cost for the Game Saves on SanDisk cards, which have suggested retail prices ranging from $49.99 for a 256-megabyte(1) card to $114.99 for a 1-gigabyte card. Also, the Madden feature still leaves most of the card with substantial space for videos, music, digital images and other content.

Madden NFL 06 is named after John Madden, famed television network sportscaster and former coach of the Oakland Raiders football team. "We believe that this content will be well-received by PSP owners," said Christina Day, SanDisk retail product marketing manager for game cards. "It differentiates our products and provides real value and excitement for fans of the game."

With the Game Save content on SanDisk cards, players can unlock features that would normally take much time and high scoring to initiate. The bonus material grants users 100 points toward a new mode called "Assistant Coach Franchise," a game goal system that is exclusive to the PSP version of Madden NFL 06. Among other advantages of the PSP game, users can play online(2) opponents and play them on the go.

"Consumers who buy Madden NFL 06 for the PSP and a SanDisk PRO Duo Game card will get a head start in collecting their points," said Todd Sitrin, vice president of marketing at EA. "Since the Sony PSP relies on flash memory cards to store game data from each play session, we saw the logic of bundling Game Saves with the cards to highlight features that are unique to the PSP edition of Madden NFL 06."