As the success of digital distribution services such as the iTunes App Store, Xbox Live and PSN continue to ask serious questions of the traditional console software sales model, EA boss john Riccitiello may just have hinted at a loss of appetitive for full-price console releases.

“This week, market research for August will show that year over year, the industry was down in North America – and that August sales of Madden NFL 10 are down with that trend,” the exec said in an internal note to EA employees published by Bloomberg.

“It is discouraging that one of our highest-rated and best-marketed Madden titles in years is facing strong headwinds.”

However, in the same note Riccitiello has nothing but praise for EA’s growing digital casual game business.

The full story can be found over on CasualGaming.biz.