The annual cash cow juggernaut that is EA’s Madden NFL Football 2005 came out a couple of weeks ago. It’s selling like wildfire.

However, in a blatant act of “Give us $50 each year for the latest iteration of the game”, some stores are taking pre-orders for the Madden 2006 version already, which is listed with a ship date of August 8, 2005. Now, I know there’s a version every year. I know sports games fans get bilked more than any other franchise around. But having pre-orders up already (at EB Games & Gamestop) when the current one is fresh? That seems a bit much to me.

I think we all knew that ESPN’s NFL 2k5 game wasn’t going to sell as much as Madden. It’s like me coming up with my own operating system that’s as good as Microsoft’s. You can do it, but it won’t sell as well. ESPN/Take 2 tried a cool move by making their current game only $20. It’s a maneuver that worked on me. Because Madden’s game was finally Xbox Live capable, I was going to move there, after the death of the Microsoft line of football games. However, ESPN came in, and it’s hard to beat the $20 price point over the $50 one for Madden. Too bad more people couldn’t see that, it’s a great game.

But taking pre-orders for the next version of the game when the current one is fresh off the mint? Seems a bit greedy, guys.