This makes it even more remarkable that the PS3 version isn't up to par.
We're talking about EA.
Where have EA, especially in sports games, demonstrated graphics prowess?
Sony's first-party quickly put together a baseball game and released the first version at 60 fps. That game is the toast of hardcore sports gamers. The graphics could be better in MLB 07 The Show but Madden graphics are no better.
Oh and someone brought up NBA 07 running at 1080p60. As pointed out, indoor games are not as demanding as outdoor games. Well no other NBA or NHL games for that matter run at 60 fps yet on any console.
It should also be noted that NONE of EA's games ran at 60 fps on the PS2/Xbox era. I don't even think EA games ran at 30 fps locked either. But the MLB series ran at 60 fps for at least the last two PS2 releases. The simple fact of the matter is that EA never prioritized 60 fps before.
So again, don't judge the capabilities of a platform, even multiplatform games, by what EA does. They've never shown that they want to push graphics or technology (no next gen physics yet) and they've haven't needed to be cause despite the technological mediocrity of their games, they have huge sales.
So why did they go 60 fps out of the blue? If they stayed at 30 fps, their sales wouldn't have been affected. Perhaps one way to look at it is that they've now set expectations of 60 fps on their football games for the rest of this generation. That would mean we can probably forget about better graphics, such as those hinted at in the concept video commercial and the screens they circulated before they released Madden 06 on the X360.
Also like I said, they have some financial incentives to promote the X360 SKU. Beyond possible co-op advertising, they are also doing an in-game ad deal with Microsoft-owned Massive for the X360 SKU this year.