EA Announces Return Of Long Sought-After College Football Video Game

One of the most requested video games of the last seven years is making a return.

What Happened: A NCAA college football game is in development with Electronic Arts Inc EA announcing an exclusive deal with CLC, the nation’s leading collegiate trademark licensing company.

“We’ve heard from the millions of passionate fans requesting the return of college football video games,” said EA Sports EVP Cam Weber.

The game will not include student athlete names, images or likenesses. EA is watching developments in this area, so this could be adjusted in the future with legislation ongoing.

The new game could break tradition and not include NCAA in the title opting for “EA Sports College Football” instead according to ESPN.

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Why It’s Important: From 2005 to 2014, the NCAA Football games from Electronic Arts sold tens of millions of copies and were consistently ranked in the top five for sports titles each year.

The game has been a huge request from fans. The last released version of the game “NCAA Football 14,” featuring University of Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson on the cover, regularly sells for over $100 on eBay Inc EBAY.

For those who never stopped believing... #EASPORTSCollegeFootball pic.twitter.com/ojDl9LzXuj

— EASPORTSCollege (@EASPORTSCollege) February 2, 2021

Electronic Arts had only two of the top 20 best selling video games in 2020, according to Venture Beat. Both games on the list were sports-related with “Madden NFL 21” and “FIFA 21” ranking fourth and 15th on the year, respectively.

Other sports-related video games of “NBA 2K21” from Take-Two Interactive TTWO and “MLB: The Show 20” from Sony SNE ranked in the top 20.

What’s Next: Electronic Arts is set to announce third-quarter earnings after market close on Tuesday. The company could provide more details on the NCAA Football game and answer questions on what the timing looks like for more announcements and the release date.

Shares of Electronic Arts are up 2% to $149.22 on the news. Shares hit a new 52-week high of $150.30 earlier Tuesday.