Electronic Arts' flagship sports series stiff-armed the competition at the 2006 Home Entertainment Awards, winning two of the show's three game-related awards.

　　Madden NFL 06, last year's iteration of the leading football game, took home the honors for the best GameCube and PlayStation 2 games at the show, which was held on July 10 in Las Vegas. For Microsoft's console, however, it was a different story, as Bungie Studios' uberpopular--and Xbox-exclusive--Halo 2 beat out Madden to claim the show's award for the best Xbox game.

　　Neither series is a stranger to the award show, which was sponsored by the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA). Halo 2 was named the best Xbox game in 2005 as well, and a previous incarnation of EA's football series--Madden 2004--won the PS2 game-of-the-year award two years ago.

　　The award shows began in 1989, but this year's ceremonies were the first put on by the EMA--an organization formed after the May merger of two retail and video-store industry groups. Still, this year's awards followed the cues of previous years' Video Software Dealers Association award shows, which focused on honors given to movies and video-store rentals.