NCAA Will Not Renew EA Sports Contract, NCAA Football Series is Dead in Name Only

[lhslancers]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jet Sufferer

This is my question, browsed the thread and couldn't find the answer so if this is redundant my apologies in advance. Is the deal with the CLC exclusive in any way, if 2K or some other upstart want to thrown their hat in the ring and make a College game is the cost of the license prohibitive? Will they sell the license to multiple companies like the old days? For the love of God will some other big name companies/talent please make a football game? High School, college, SEC, 5 college conferences, Division 2 College, 11 mascots and a ballboy, something, anything, throw me a bone here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhQhZyNKqhM

[awill25]

Ya know guys.... Looking from an optimistic point of view... This is the best period of college football gaming in quite awhile. We currently have the best game we have had in years with NCAA 14. Now we are moving into a new generation of consoles that are easier to develop for than this one, and we are losing the "restrictions" the NCAA has placed on the franchise. Let's face it, what college sports really are and what the NCAA wants to portray to us are two totally different things. Hopefully we can get closer to an authentic playing experience without the NCAA involvement.

[BigMoneyAllDay]

Does anyone else realize what this means? FCS is an NCAA Division! They can't use FCS West anymore! They might pull a deal with some FCS Conferences though, and get the NCAA out of the picture.

[fballturkey]

This thread is moving too fast for most people to see this, but I don't think people understand the advantage EA has with football games right now.

1) Employees. They have the only employees that have worked on a football video game (excluding backbreaker) in around 6 years. Sure you could come in and take a couple, but everyone else will be starting from scratch. That's a big hurdle to get over.

2) Technology. Do you know why there are legacy issues since 2007 still in the game? They use a lot of the same code from year to year. It's the only thing that makes a yearly installment game profitable at their price point. There is no engine for an upstart to license out like they could for other genres. You'd be starting from scratch. That's really expensive.

3) Brand. People are creatures of habit. If you buy head and shoulders when you're 22 you'll probably buy it when your 40. Videogames are hardly different. Also College football games are a niche genre. A big niche, but a niche. It's not a first person shooter. The market only has so much room.

4) Relationships. EA has a relationship with the important parties (ESPN, CLC, NFL, etc) already. Other companies generally don't. Sure you could go build them, but that takes time and money and introduces uncertainty.

Basically if I ran a video game company I'd love, personally, to make a college football game. I'd also deserve to be fired if I tried because its a really unprofitable idea.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jet Sufferer

This is my question, browsed the thread and couldn't find the answer so if this is redundant my apologies in advance. Is the deal with the CLC exclusive in any way, if 2K or some other upstart want to thrown their hat in the ring and make a College game is the cost of the license prohibitive? Will they sell the license to multiple companies like the old days? For the love of God will some other big name companies/talent please make a football game? High School, college, SEC, 5 college conferences, Division 2 College, 11 mascots and a ballboy, something, anything, throw me a bone here.

The deal is no longer exclusive after 2013 but if you expect someone else like 2k to jump in compete with EA...its unlikely.

[Perfect Zero]

Quote: Originally Posted by Quint75

One thing about EA and this series: Owen Goode said this is the 3rd largest selling sports game/franchise in the US. That's nothing to sneeze at and I can't see why stockholders would be so willing to give that up so easily.

Because investors more than anybody pounce on even the slightest bit of news. The headline reads that the NCAA is pulling out of a future deal with EA. It doesn't really talk about the CLC or the future of gaming, all it says is that the NCAA is pulling out. Investors have been known to do worse. EA has already seen a 1.57% dip today due to the news and it's far away from the $60 days on the market.

And you hit on a very good point in that it's the third largest franchise in the United States. It pales in comparison to FIFA and is still lagging behind Madden. Now with the uncertainty of what's going to happen in court and with your best known partner pulling out? That doesn't sound too good.

Again, they may pull this off, but there is still a long road ahead.

[leathrneck34]

I don't know if anyone else is aware and can post a link because I cannot. I was on ESPN and they also have a story on this, and they said there is another game coming in 15 and EA is calling it College Football 15. And major schools such as Alabama Oregon and Ohio or something like that will be present. What it didn't say was that any other schools will be involved.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by leathrneck34

I don't know if anyone else is aware and can post a link because I cannot. I was on ESPN and they also have a story on this, and they said there is another game coming in 15 and EA is calling it College Football 15. And major schools such as Alabama Oregon and Ohio or something like that will be present. What it didn't say was that any other schools will be involved.

Its expected that all 127 teams will be in next years game.