NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Slap on the face paint, grab a cold one and settle into your La-Z-Boy, 'cause football season is here.

Yeah, sure, those giants in the NFL won't start their pre-season for another couple of weeks. And those NCAA boys won't get started for another month. Why wait, though, when you can bring the game home and never even break a sweat?

Football titles are among the gaming industry's best sellers. They're one of the few products that appeal to both casual and hardcore players -- and one of the few arenas where you'll see those distinctly different groups mingle pleasantly. For publishers, they're a lucrative source of income -- and no publisher loves football more than Electronic Arts.

EA (ERTS: Research, Estimates) is the leader in sports titles -- in the same sense that Sony is the leader in console sales. In other words, combine the sales of all the other players in this field and you still won't come close to touching EA's numbers. And this year, the company looks set to extend that lead.

Take a look at the just-released "NCAA Football 2004." In its first week on store shelves, the game sold 400,000 copies. That's $20 million in revenue. Last year's edition of the game sold 1.3 million copies -- at $50 a pop. The nearest competitor, Sega's "NCAA 2K3" only sold 200,000 copies -- with a retail price that was $20 lower. (Sega, which is not a masochistic company, has decided not to produce a college football game this year.)

NCAA's just the warm-up, though. Early next month, "Madden 2004" hits shelves and the real excitement begins. Fans have already pre-ordered 100,000 copies of the game (a record for EA) -- and analysts expect sales to top last year's 4.2 million copies.

In addition to my dedication to the Atlanta Falcons (see above), I'm also a Bills fan, so you can imagine how much this "Madden 2004" shot hurts me.

EA's not the only game in town, of course. While the sales figures may not reflect it, the competition puts out some excellent football titles. Sega will team with ESPN this year, hoping to build on the sports network's name. Microsoft's (MSFT: Research, Estimates) "NFL Fever" line also returns, with some interesting online twists. Both of these franchises have proven quite solid in previous years. And Sony's (SNE: Research, Estimates) 989 Studios and Midway (MWY: Research, Estimates) will also put out new titles.

The big variable this year is the inclusion of online play. Last year was the first that PS2 and Xbox players were able to go head to head with friends across the country -- and they seemed to like what they experienced. 30,000 players have already registered to play "NCAA Football" online. Now, publishers are interested in discovering exactly how dedicated electronic football fans are to the online element.

In other words, if you thought you got nickeled and dimed to death at the stadium, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

"The online connected console is a brand new concept," noted EA president John Riccitiello in a conference call Wednesday. "We do not want to set a long term precedent that it's a free benefit, but we don't think we can get paid for the simple act of matching two consumers to play against one another. So what we've been doing is looking at alternatives."

Click the football grill for previous columns.

Among those alternatives will be pay-to-play tournaments (though "NBA Live," not "Madden," will be the guinea pig for that experiment). The company also plans to offer consumers the opportunity to purchase downloadable content for its games. (EA's sports games can only be played online with the PlayStation 2. The company does not support Microsoft's Xbox Live.)

"That's what this year is really all about -- testing," said Riccitiello. "The issue is what we learn in terms of what the consumer is willing to pay for."

Xbox owners won't be completely left out on their own. Sega and Microsoft's internal titles are playable online on the console. And next month, Microsoft plans to launch "XSN Sports," a new service allowing players to create their own leagues, track real-time statistics of other players and send out challenges to other players via cell phone and e-mail. The service is included in Xbox Live's $50 annual subscription fee.

It's encouraging to see publishers fostering the community elements of the sports genre, though charging for those elements seems somewhat distasteful. As I've mentioned before, though, adding fees onto a $50 price tag is not a way to endear yourself to your customer base.  

Morris is Director of Content Development for CNN/Money. Click here to send him an e-mail.