SVideo game port releases tend to be boring. New versions come out every year, and beyond roster updates and some gameplay tweaks, not much changes from one release to the next. Unlike Grand Theft Auto fans, sports game fans don’t plan midnight release parties.
But EA Sports College Football 25, which launches worldwide on July 19, is no ordinary game. It may be the most anticipated sports video game release in the United States. And to understand why, we have to go back to the beginning.
EA Sports started making college football video games Back in 1993 on Sega GenesisOther studios would venture into college football, but by the late 2000s, EA Sports’ franchise, called NCAA Football, established itself as the market leader. The games were generally well received critically and commercially, and the latest iteration, NCAA 14, It is reported that around 1.5 million units were sold..
But the NCAA football franchise had a problem that had nothing to do with critics or consumers: the fields. (The terminology surrounding the game can be confusing to those who aren’t fans of college sports. The NCAA is the primary governing body for college sports in the U.S. The NCAA football franchise takes its name from the organization.)
Franchises like Madden, NBA2K and EA Sports FC negotiate rights not only with professional leagues but also with various sports unions, allowing the game to feature the likeness of teams and athletes. But college students are not defined as professional athletes, and NCAA policy in the 2010s prohibited players from receiving any financial compensation for their skills.
So while previous NCAA Football releases featured real teams like the Ohio State Buckeyes or Florida Gators, the athletes would simply be known as QB #7 or RB #21, rather than their real names.
But you didn’t have to be Hercule Poirot to figure out that, for example, in NCAA Football 2009, QB No. 15 had the same height, weight, hair color and skill attributes as Tim Tebow, the real quarterback of the Florida Gators.
Athletes took notice, too. In July 2009, former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon led a class-action lawsuit by college athletes claiming that the NCAA, EA Sports, and Collegiate Licensing Company had illegally used their images without compensation.
EA Sports and CLC reach an out-of-court settlementwhile the NCAA appealed after losing the lawsuit. Instead of allowing EA Sports to pay athletes for the use of their image, The NCAA decided to cancel its licensing agreement with EA Sports in 2013and several major colleges and schools quickly followed suit. The franchise had never featured real players, but would now have to do without real teams or conferences and brands that pulled their sponsorship thanks to the game’s more limited reach. EA Sports deemed the series no longer viable:NCAA 14 was the final game of the series.
Until now. In February 2021, EA Sports posted a tweet that stunned the college football world. The game was coming back.
In 2020, it became clear to college sports industry leaders that the NCAA’s strict policies against athletes monetizing their name, image and likeness rights would not hold up to political and legal scrutiny. In July 2021, the NCAA formally changed the policy, allowing athletes to earn money for appearing in commercials, promoting products on social media, and yes, appearing in video games. Since athletes had an avenue to earn money for their participation, schools quickly agreed to participate in the revamped NCAA football series. More than 11,000 real-life players will appear in this year’s game.
As the game nears its release date, colleges across the United States are joining in on the excitement. Mississippi State is hosting a launch party inside its 9,000-seat basketball arena, inviting fans to play alongside current and former Bulldogs athletes. The main NIL collective supporting UCLA is organizing a similar event. So are smaller programs like Georgia Southern and San Diego State. Other schools, Like Boise State, he entered the world of video games. to announce new uniforms for its football teams. EA will also have developers in camps to install current Game manuals for real-life teams in the fictional world, to ensure that those student-athletes playing late into the night can duplicate their film study (actual playbooks will not be available to general players).
These events are meant to help unite the different groups that make up the College Football 25 community: from new fans to those approaching 40 years old who remember past editions of the franchise. If you’re wondering why your colleague booked a last-minute vacation or is slow to respond on Slack, he’s probably thinking about taking North Texas to new heights in the future. dynasty modeThere is a group of dormant players and NCAA fans who haven’t picked up a controller since the game was shelved in 2014. But the passion for the game remained; more than 120,000 people tuned in for a Fictional National Championship Streaming on Twitch during the pandemic.
That deep love for the franchise also extends to the people creating the game. Christian McLeod, EA Sports’ director of production, said in June that the entire development process “has been a labor of love for everyone on the team.”
The project is particularly rewarding for McLeod, as he chose a less traditional career path. McLeod, who identifies as a “geek” of college video games since the early 90s, originally worked as a chemical engineer and wrote about sports video games as a sideline. The developers found his work and eventually reached out to him to join the NCAA football team as a designer. Other notable figures on the development and design side of the project also came from outside the video game industry.
“I’m a firm believer that if you’re truly passionate about something, especially in the games industry, you should bring that passion to the table,” McLeod said. “We can teach you how to be a designer. We can teach you how to be a producer. We can’t teach passion.”
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That passion has fueled the push to bring the game back. When the series went on hiatus, a group of fans released a mod called College Football Revamped, which continued to update the game on PC. Other game studios reportedly tried to shut down the project with lawsuits. Instead, EA hired several people from the Revamped team to help create College Football 25.
The new edition won’t just be for US fans. For the first time, fans outside of North America can easily play without having to worry About region-locked hardware.
One such enthusiastic fan is Ben Parker from Bishop’s Stortford, England. Parker told me he first discovered American football through the Madden series.
“I was already a huge football fan, but Madden really taught me that there’s so much more to football than you think… it’s like a human version of chess, which I found fascinating,” Parker says.
Following the NFL, Parker became familiar with the college game. “I decided to buy a copy of the 2006 Rose Bowl on eBay. That was the year that Vince Young, Reggie Bush, Keith Jackson were the announcers, the setting of the Rose Bowl — it was perfect. And it was such an incredible drama to watch, even after so many months of the game, that I thought, ‘I have to know more about this sport.’”
Parker managed to get his hands on an imported copy of NCAA 2006 on eBay, which he played religiously. Parker and many other Europeans and South Americans I spoke to believe the video game could be another avenue for college football to gain a larger international audience, especially since access to live broadcasts can be difficult outside the U.S.
While industry analysts expect the Madden series to still outsell NCAA College Football 25 because of the NFL’s massive domestic and international popularity, sources at schools and in the licensing industry are confident that this year’s college release will perform well commercially.
That would mean a new generation of fans would connect with the passion not just of the video game, but of college football itself. And maybe it was worth the wait.