TheEA Sportscollege football games were once a staple of sports gaming entertainment. Players could create teams, develop new recruits, and coach existing college football teams to season after season of National Championship wins. However, that changed in 2013 whenEA Sportssaid there would be no college football game for 2014after a host of college athletes filed lawsuits against EA for using their names and likenesses with no financial compensation.
After eight years with no news on the return of the franchise,EA Sportsannounced it would be bringing back college football, dropping the NCAA titles of the past games and going with the name ofEA Sports College Football. Fans immediately reacted in excitement, eager to dive into the college football experience once again with updated rosters and potential new mechanics after 7 years of technological advancements in games. However, recent documents obtained by a college sports news reporter suggest that even thoughEA Sports College Footballis still happening, it’s much further away than fans think.
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To avoid lawsuits,EA Sportsneeds to be able to obtain college football assets without using student names, images, and likenesses. Some of the documentation received by Matt Brown addresses howEA Sportsplans on retrieving this assets, as well as other information about the game. Much of the preparation process for the development ofEA Sports College Footballinvolves scanning all the different assets needed for the game, like team logos, mascot costumes, and even uniforms.EA Sportsmay also make requests for specific assets from schools like marching band recordings to be able to use them in the game.
While the obtained documents also hinted that there would be over 100 teams in the game, it does seem that college football fans won’t be able play as big teams like Alabama exactly the way they appear in today’s football games. The removal of player likenesses could mean that even if the quarterback of Ohio State inEA Sports College Footballhas the same jersey number as the real person, they may look nothing alike. However, if it’s true that the game won’t be coming out until 2023,EA Sportshas a lot of time to iron out the minutia of the process and hopefully create a game fans will be happy with.
EA Sports College Footballis in development for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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