EA Sports returns to college football.
After he last played a football video game in college in 2013, the possibility of the game returning had been in the language. It is not now. Daryl Holt, vice president and general manager of EA Sports, told ESPN that the game maker will return to space with EA Sports College Football.
“As we look for the impetus we develop in sports, it all starts with the passion of our fans and the opportunities of what interests them,” said Holt. “I don’t think there’s a visit when I go out wearing an EA Sports garment that someone doesn’t say, ‘Hey, when is college football coming back? ”
It will be – at some point. Holt said that there is no date for the return of the game and not even a date when the return will be announced, other than that it will not return for this year.
To make the game happen, EA Sports has partnered with college licensing company CLC to make sure FBS schools, traditions, uniforms and playing cards – among other things – are ready to go into the game. Over 100 teams will be in play.
For now, EA Sports intends to move forward without lists that include the names, images or similarities of real college players. Current NCAA rules prohibit athletes from selling their NIL rights while in college.
However, it is possible that these rules will be changed at some point next year – by the NCAA, state legislatures or Congress. It is not yet clear whether the evolving rules will allow for the type of group licensing agreements that would be required for EA Sports to negotiate with athletes to use their names in the game.
Holt said EA Sports will monitor the NIL discussion if and when things change, but that it is too early for that to happen. He also said that what happens in the NIL legislation will not change if the game happens or when it reaches the shelves.
“We’ll just keep tabs on everything as it develops and we’ll be ready,” Holt said. “It simply came to our notice then. But really, it is not an answer for us now to decide. We are as many passengers as anyone else.
“So we make sure we deliver what our college football players would like in a game. And it just starts with a very exciting experience and there are a lot of things we can do to bring the real college game and game day to the virtual world. “
Holt said that EA Sports is still at the beginning of the game development process, building the team and deciding in which direction it wants the game to go. Talks about bringing the game back began more than a year ago, Holt said, and the company’s impulse combination, combined with technology it has seen on state-of-the-art platforms such as the Sony PS5 and Xbox Series X, and- they consolidated the decision to return to space.
“What we had as plans to grow and expand our portfolio, college football has always been at the top of my list, personally, working with Tiburon Studio where it was made,” Holt said. “So it was an easy conversation internally to say, ‘Here’s how we approach it in a conceived way and here’s how we can move forward. ”
This has been going on for some time and it has certainly not been a ‘Wait and see what is happening here’, even if continuous legislation is proposed. It’s more about what we think we can do around the game and for [game] players. “
A change from previous iterations of the game – for now – will be the name of the game. In previous iterations of the game from 1997 to 2014, the NCAA Football title was used along with the year. Prior to that, he was College Football USA for two years and, in the first two years of the game, Bill Walsh College Football.
Holt said the restart plan would be not to have the NCAA name, but to simply use EA Sports College Football.
“It all really starts where we see college football going. A lot of things happen and a lot of things happen in sports,” Holt said. “EA Sports College Football gives us a name and a brand to work on for some things that could evolve, as well as what we really focus on outside the gate, which is really the FBS Division I schools and the road to the championship. college football championship and college football championship.
“So EA Sports College Football felt like the right name for the product not only now, but as we move forward.”
The game, whenever he returns, will be the first college football title at NCAA Football 2014, which had former Michigan defender Denard Robinson on the cover.
ESPN reporter Dan Murphy contributed to this report.