It’s official, Electronic Arts (EA) will be releasing an NCAA Football video game for the first time since 2014. This was announced by EA on February 2nd, 2021 and came as an extremely pleasant surprise to those who remember the days of XBOX 360s and Playstation 2s. The most requested game to be brought back in the history of EA, fans everywhere came together to celebrate this historic event.
This announcement, while exciting, was also prone to some criticism. It was stated that the game will only be on next-gen consoles, which are the XBOX series X and Playstation 5, which are very uncommon for most people to have in their household. It was also revealed that the game will come out in 2022, according to Sports Illustrated. While this does suck in the eyes of the average consumer, the most atrocious part of this is what will happen to the players. According to the New York Times, “the players will not be paid, and nor will their likeness be used in the game.” In response to this news, the last cover athlete of an NCAA video game, Denard Robinson who was on NCAA Football 14 was asked for his thoughts on a new NCAA Football video game.
In an interview with the Ringer, Robinson said “I know the feeling for me—I wanted to be in the game, that was a big accomplishment for me, being able to pick myself with Michigan and go play with me. I wanted kids to feel that same feeling I had. For those new dudes coming up in the game, I wanted them to have the same feeling of being able to play with themselves in the game,”
According to polygon.com, “NCAA Football, which lasted from 1995 to 2013, is still the fourth-biggest selling sports franchise of all time.” This kind of statistic is even more shocking when it is considered that it is larger than video games like NHL, which has been out since 1991 and WWE, which has had branches of games out since 1987. It’s clear to see that this decision will make a lot of money with the release of this game. However, the NCAA will be pocketing the money for the logos, the jerseys, and the stadiums that will appear on the game, yet because of very controversial rules of players being ineligible to make any profit from any sports related content, the players won’t actually be in the game.
On the bright side, those who recall the times of Road To Glories and the Create a Players will get what they’ve always wanted – an NCAA Football video game.
