Pre-order Madden NFL 11 at Wal-Mart, get a $20 gift card

(Seriously, if you’ve never been to peopleofwalmart.com, I highly recommend it. It is a fascinating slice of Americana, a rabbit hole from which it is difficult to escape.)

Wal-Mart may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of pre-ordering a videogame — hell, it probably isn’t even the fourth or fifth store that pops into your head. And I personally try to avoid setting foot inside the big-box retailer. But I’m happy to see that they’ve got a special offer for football fans that doesn’t even require that.

Yesterday, Wal-Mart began taking pre-orders for EA Sports’ Madden NFL 11. EA Tiburon hasn’t even told us anything about the game yet, but it’ll be out this August, and if it’s as good as last year’s iteration, it’s going to be worth picking up. If you pre-order the PS3, 360, or Wii versions of it at Walmart.com, you’ll get a free $20 e-gift card. (Pre-ordering the PS2 or PSP versions will get you a $10 e-gift card.) You can put the e-gift card toward the purchase of pretty much anything you want on Walmart.com, but you won’t be able to use it in a physical Wal-Mart store.

Apparently, this is a limited-time offer (“while supplies last,” which never makes sense to me when you’re talking about “supplies” of an item that doesn’t physically exist), so if you’re confident that EA Tiburon will put out a great product, go for it!

Madden NFL 11 [Wal-Mart; image via People of Walmart]