The business side of Electronic Arts made headlines this week. EA's quarterly financial numbers were released this week, and it didn't go well for EA -- though Madden NFL 08 did sell 4.8 million copies across all platforms. Overall the company lost $195 million during the quarter. EA CEO John Riccitiello also made headlines this week. He spoke with Fortune and made many gamers happy by questioning how much longer "they [EA] can expect consumers to pay $59 for a video game." He also stated in a post-earnings conference call that "we shot ourselves in the foot" when it came to the PlayStation 2 pricing for NCAA Football 08, feeling it should have been $39 (should have done the same thing for last-gen Madden if I say so myself John).

However, if business news bores you, then don't fret, there was some sports gaming news this week as well. That's why this week in the Roundup, Madden NFL 08, Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, FIFA Soccer 2008, March Madness 08, College Hoops 2K8, and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 are covered.

This week some misinformation about the upcoming next-gen Madden NFL 08 patch was cleared up (the DSM news story explains it here). Basically there was a little disconnect in the Tiburon communication line in the original EA blog post containing the patch fixes -- the disconnect being a missing page to the original blog post. On the missing page that was then posted, many gamers' minds were eased after reading that the upcoming patch will apparently fix the franchise mode freeze that occurs due to a lack of free agents at certain positions.

March Madness 08 Producer Sean O'Brien posted a blog entry over at IGN that talked about a whole bunch of March Madness related things -- obviously. Within the blog post he states there will be a demo for this year's March Madness on XBL on November 19th; you will be able to play as Louisville or Kentucky. He also posts the Top 25 teams in this year's game which are listed below:

1. Memphis
2. UCLA
3. Georgetown
4. North Carolina
5. Kansas
6. Louisville
7. Tennessee
8. Kentucky
9. Indiana
10. Washington State
11. Michigan State
12. Texas A&M
13. Gonzaga
14. Arkansas
15. USC
16. Duke
17. Arizona
18. Kansas State
19. Washington
20. Stanford
21. Davidson
22. Clemson
23. Marquette
24. Mississippi State
25. Texas 

Speaking of NCAA college basketball games, some of the most overly talked about information about any sports game came out this week for College Hoops 2K8: the soundtrack. I don't really listen to music, and have only heard of a handful of these artists, so I'm just going to list the songs below and you guys can judge how good the soundtrack for 2K Sports' college basketball game is this year.

• Arabian Prince - Professor X Saga
• The Black Lips - It Feels Alright
• Bumblebeez - Black Dirt
• Deltron 3030 - Positive Contact
• Dilated Peoples - Spit it Clearly
• DJ Romanowski - Lord of the Pants (2-Cents Remix)
• E Reece - Just Move (Bautista Remix)
• Guilty Simpson - Make it Fast
• Heliocentrics - Joyride
• Hot Chip - My Piano (Radio Mix)
• J Dilla & MF Doom (ft. Guilty Simpson) - MASH
• James Pants - You're Doing It
• Jurassic 5 - Without a Doubt
• The Kooks - Eddie's Gun
• Liars - Plaster Casts of Everything
• Oh No - Chump
• Panthers - Goblin City
• Percee P - Legendary Lyricist
• Ski Beats - Idea
• Strange Fruit Project - Thru tha Lane
• Strange Fruit Project - Underclassmen

This year's soccer games also got some coverage this week, courtesy of GamesRadar. GR posted a video highlighting the best improvements made to PES 2008, and also did some FIFA vs. PES picture comparisons. GR took some of the best players in the world and posted how each player looked in the 08 versions of each videogame -- in my humble opinion the PES 2008 players look a little more crisp, at least up close.

Lastly on the agenda for this week of the Roundup is Smackdown 08. IGN seemingly has the hook-up every year when it comes to Smackdown information, and this year has been no different. So it's no surprise that IGN's writers have already posted reviews for every version of WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 -- even though the game doesn't release until November 13th. According to IGN's scores, it seems like every version of the game is at least solid, but none are great.