NHL 12 sets franchise sales record

Electronic Arts put the biscuit in the basket nearly a half million times last week. The publisher today revealed that it sold 451,000 copies of NHL 12 in the game's first week on sale.

The hockey sim posted franchise-best retail receipts of more than $27 million worldwide for its launch week, with the number of copies sold up 19 percent year-over-year. The publisher also said gamers posted 6.9 million online game sessions during the launch week, the most in the series' history.

EA Sports updated this year's version of the series with a new "Full Contact" physics engine. The publisher aimed to increase realism in the game, adding in such features as goalies that can be interfered with more realistically, as well as net battles. It also revamped the Be a Pro career mode and added a handful of legends to the game, including Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Gordie Howe.

EA's plans for hockey don't end with NHL 12. The publisher also today announced NHL Superstars, a free-to-play Facebook game that will launch early next month. In Superstars, players will cobble together a team of pros and pit them against their friends' squads in head-to-head matchups.