Many Americans care deeply about who appears on the front cover of Madden. Many Europeans, on the other hand, do not. They instead care about who ends up on the front cover of FIFA.
And this year, for the first time in a little while, there are new people! For the past few years now, the cover (at least, the British/Australasian cover) has featured Wayne Rooney and Ronaldinho. But with Ronaldinho on a fast track to mid-career oblivion, EA Sports have binned him in favour of a couple of new players.
So, as you can see, the cover has now all gone all-England, featuring Wayne Rooney (centre), Arsenal's Theo Walcott (left) and Chelsea's Frank Lampard (right). As noted, however, this only applies to the title sold in English-speaking PAL territories. Other regions - like Germany, Spain and the US - will feature different stars (Germany's edition, for example, will feature Bayern star Bastian Schweinsteiger alongside Rooney)
Alongside the cover reveal, EA Sports also announced that all versions of the game - on *gasp* 360, PS3, PC, PS2, DS, PSP and Wii - will be out in Europe on October 2.