EA Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) have announced the return of EA’s college football series. The publisher revealed its return on social media today after nearly eight years without an entry in its college football line of video games. The new EA Sports College Twitter account simply promises, “College Football is coming back.”
For those who never stopped believing… #EASPORTSCollegeFootball pic.twitter.com/ojDl9LzXuj
— EASPORTSCollege (@EASPORTSCollege) February 2, 2021
An EA press release offers a bit more on what to expect, saying that information on when this currently untitled project will launch will “come as the project progresses in the years ahead.”
EA’s collaboration with CLC will bring “more than 100 institutions featuring the logos, stadiums, uniforms, gameday traditions, and more that fans have come to know and love.” However, the project is not planned to include student-athlete names, images, or likenesses.
EA Sports college football games have existed for decades, but EA highlights the period between 2005 and 2014, culminating with NCAA Football 14, as having generated “tens of millions” of unit sales. Development of further iterations of the series came to a halt, however, due to a legal dispute that involved the NCAA and EA’s use of student-athlete names and likenesses. The NCAA chose not to renew its agreement with EA following the dispute.
Expect the series to carry a new name due to the NCAA’s lack of involvement in the series going forward. As far as the inclusion of student-athlete names and likenesses, EA Sports says it “is continuing to watch those developments closely.”
