OS Poll Shows Unlicensed College Football Game Unlikely to Ever Happen - RaychelSnr's Blog

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OS Poll Shows Unlicensed College Football Game Unlikely to Ever Happen Stuck

Posted on October 7, 2013 at 11:33 AM.

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In a relatively (and by that I mean totally) unscientific poll, the average OS visitor would need some type of precondition to be met before they would buy an unlicensed college football game.

In that poll we published Friday for voting, only 30% of OS'ers (as of this writing and before any contamination) say they would actually buy an unlicensed college game no questions asked. Another roughly 36% are open to the idea of actually buying the game, but only if it comes complete with good gameplay and a good dynasty/career mode.

However, 34% of those polled are very skeptical about giving an unlicensed game a shot -- which is likely higher given what people would deem as good gameplay and modes.

If you were to poll the general public, the Joe Gamers out there of the world, it is likely those numbers are much more unfavorable than even our poll shows.

What this means is that for a company not named EA Sports to take on football with an unlicensed college football game -- the market is working against that game making a return on the investment.

There aren't any other companies with the marketing prowess and budget of EA which would be willing to make such a game either, so it is especially troubling nearly one in five OS'ers have ruled out any possibility of buying such a game no matter what. This indicates sales of such a game would likely be atrocious, perhaps as low as only a couple hundred thousand units being moved.

It's likely EA Sports did a similar calculation on NCAA when reportedly Ohio State told the company it was no longer interested in being in the game. With the likelihood of other schools jumping ship -- there just wasn't a future for the franchise given the costs required to make the jump onto next-gen.

As next-gen consoles near launch day, the start-up cost to get into developing a sports game on those consoles will be immense -- much higher than in prior generations due to the increased level of detail needed to be competitive with existing market heavyweights.

Thus, while it sounds great to some (roughly 30%) OS'ers, the idea of a fully customizable college football game will remain a pipe dream.

The only hope for college pigskin to be represented by a game anytime in the future will be a fully licensed game made possible by a tectonic rules shift from the NCAA and a guarantee to schools and conferences they will not incur any legal risk by being a part of the game, not to mention a company (most likely still EA Sports) willing to take on the start-up costs of developing a new football game.

Getting all of those issues squared away is a mountain which hasn't even begun to be scaled yet, and it looks unlikely it will be anytime soon.

Do you think we will ever see a college football game again on consoles?

Comments

# 1 bwright25 @ Oct 7

Solid run.

At least they left us with arguably the BEST one yet

# 2 DataBull @ Oct 7

You need to change the title of this blog.

"Only if the gameplay and career mode were good". That is a duh. Do you believe someone would put out a bad game and expect people to buy it? That is a rather ridiculous assumption.

If someone could get 50% of the old NCAA market, it would be a smashing success from a revenue perpsective. Your poll easily supports a good game getting 50%, probably more like 75%. So if this poll is the only criteria a company is using in order to decide whether to bulid a game, they will build it in a heartbeat.

# 3 RaychelSnr @ Oct 7

This is a poll which was taken of the most hardcore sports gamers, Joe ****** gamer is even less inclined to buy an unlicensed game. There is nothing in the poll to suggest anyone could capture half of NCAA's market -- which even at that, it would be tough to turn a huge profit while making a quality game. Next-gen development costs are going to make getting into sports gaming pretty difficult if you want to produce a sim. If it were easy to produce sports sims, more companies would have been trying to do it this last gen, much less the upcoming gen.

# 4 mb625 @ Oct 7

To be fair... I voted for good gameplay/dynasty mode, and I don't have overly high standards. Though I'm sure some have higher standards than I.

# 5 kingsofthevalley @ Oct 7

I honestly think EA is going to do it again. Another Bill Walsh College football would sell just the same utilizing generic state names with fake mascots.

# 6 TjJunior @ Oct 8

I have before, still do, and would again. Its like asking would I play an open world shooting game without it being in the GTA universe.

# 7 Lukin4 @ Oct 8

I definitely think it would be possible for another developer. Considering that they wouldn't have the cost of any licences, and if it was a single release with ongoing updates instead of a full annual release, and with no direct competition, it could make sense financially.

# 8 thomguy123 @ Oct 8

has anyone ever heard of Longshot games? They were talking about making a new college football game in 2014 or so in the middle of the Summer. And another thing, they were talking about making their game around only $20, so why wouldn't you buy it? It's low risk, and from what I saw, there was so much potential. Now I don't know if Longshot is going anywhere since they failed their first Kickstarter campaign, but they spoke of trying again after they had more publicity. Possible? Maybe. Intriguing? Very.

# 9 DataBull @ Oct 9

"Joe ****** gamer is even less inclined to buy an unlicensed game."

Any evidence whatsoever to back this opinion up? "Joe ****** Gamer" is unlikely to be as worried about whether the colleges are real or not, IMO. Only hardcore NCAAers want realism.

# 10 mhanson93 @ Oct 9

I disagree DataBull. I think the ONLY reason a ****** gamer would even consider purchasing a college football game is the chance to play as their favorite school. The NCAA license is the hook for the ****** fan (and the hardcore as well). I just dont see any way that a ****** sports fan would look at a generic college game and try it out.