After a decade without a college sports video game being on the marketplace, EA Sports is bringing back the most beloved of their college offerings next year. EA Sports College Football (the spiritual successor to NCAA Football franchise) will revive the franchise and actually provide some compensation to the players depicted in it in the process.
The game was initially set for a 2023 release but got pushed to 2024, and there were some concerned that a lawsuit brought by The BrandR Group about how the game was licensing player’s rights would push it back further. On Thursday, that lawsuit got dropped and any concerns it could tie up the release further has gone away with it. EA Sports released a statement regarding the lawsuit being dropped, with the biggest news coming from the statement being that they confirmed that the game is still on track for a summer 2024 release.
“We are pleased that BrandR has decided to withdraw their claims without any payment from EA,” EA Sports said in a statement. “We’ve been clear from the beginning that this suit had no merit. Our focus continues to be on directly licensing individual college athlete name and likeness rights through an opt-in program that will give college athletes the choice if they want to be in our game. We’re pleased to move on from these claims and look forward to delivering EA SPORTS College Football in Summer 2024.”
As Matt Brown of Extra Points, who has been the best source of news on the EA Sports College Football game, has said many times, the lawsuit was never going to stop the game from coming out, but simply had the potential to make some financial things a bit sticky. Now, with the lawsuit dropped, EA Sports can move forward without a legal battle on their hands as well, and will continue moving forward with the direct licensing plan that will allow players to opt in to being in the game, where they will be paid for that licensing (the expected payment is ~$500).
We can all now hope the game delivers on what longtime fans of the game (like myself) have wanted from a modern offering, and doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel with one of the great sports games of all-time.