NCAA Football 14 News Post

EA Sports Will Not Publish College Football Game Next Year, Future Plans in Doubt

05:23 PM - September 26, 2013 by FloorGeneral

Here is the official statement from EA Sports:

Quote:


	"Today I am sad to announce that we will not be publishing a new college football game next year, and we are evaluating our plan for the future of the franchise. This is as profoundly disappointing to the people who make this game as I expect it will be for the millions who enjoy playing it each year. I�d like to explain a couple of the factors that brought us to this decision. We have been stuck in the middle of a dispute between the NCAA and student-athletes who seek compensation for playing college football. Just like companies that broadcast college games and those that provide equipment and apparel, we follow rules that are set by the NCAA � but those rules are being challenged by some student-athletes. For our part, we are working to settle the lawsuits with the student-athletes. Meanwhile, the NCAA and a number of conferences have withdrawn their support of our game. The ongoing legal issues combined with increased questions surrounding schools and conferences have left us in a difficult position � one that challenges our ability to deliver an authentic sports experience, which is the very foundation of EA SPORTS games. At EA SPORTS, college football has always been a labor of love, and it is unfortunate that these business and legal issues have impacted our ability to make next year�s game. This franchise has been developed by a team that is deeply committed to the tradition and culture of this sport � that�s why fans have always loved it. We are working to retain the talented people who are part of the team by placing them elsewhere within the EA SPORTS organization. In the meantime, we will continue to be connected and engaged with our fans who are playing EA SPORTS NCAA Football. Our decision does not affect our commitment to NCAA Football 14 and the consumers who love playing the game."

Game: NCAA Football 14Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 54 - View All

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Member Comments

# 241 statman78 @ 09/27/13 12:06 AM

Why not take this as an opportunity to take make a game outside the confines of the NCAA? Why not have a EA College Football 14 with fake universities and players that are completely editable. To me, this is an opportunity to innovate rather than accept the status quo.

# 242 kmp714 @ 09/27/13 12:10 AM

Just another, of many, examples of greed destroying people and society. I mean that from all sides involved. You know everything does not always ha e to be about money, but unfortunately nowadays it just does.

# 243 BungerHenry @ 09/27/13 12:12 AM

Greedy little punks ruining the whole game series. To HELL with these guys suing the NCAA.

# 244 wolverinemaniac @ 09/27/13 12:25 AM

on the bright side I no longer have a need for a console, I can cancel my next gen preorder and save some money.

Back to exclusively pcgaming for me.

PEACE

# 245 bkrich83 @ 09/27/13 12:31 AM

LOL at the notion the athletes are being exploited.

The "I gotta get mine" generation strikes again. One more reason I am losing interest in college football.

# 246 T-Moar @ 09/27/13 12:35 AM

Wow, this is a shock. Did NOT expect this to happen. I guess 14 just turned into a buy for me.

Hopefully we can get a patch that includes the CF Playoff now?

# 247 Swamp Swagger @ 09/27/13 12:43 AM

Man this just flat out sucks. Ncaa football was a must buy every year but it's all over now...

No college games period

# 248 dso122783 @ 09/27/13 12:48 AM

Here is the thing I don't understand about this whole thing, and this stupid "A.P.U."

These high school football players KNOW they will get paid nothing to go to college and play football. They KNOW there is a college football video game that does NOT pay athletes. Yet, they still CHOOSE to go to these schools and play. So, here I have an idea...go to a NDSU, or The Citadel, or Towson...they can still get a FREE education, AND get drafted into the NFL. But they don't have to worry about being in an NCAA video game, on TV (Do you think the NDSU players are going to sue ESPN for filming Gameday up there last week?), not getting money from jersey sales, etc.

So there is the solution. Why is that so hard to understand? How can you sue for something you knew you weren't going to get? When I was growing up and playing NCAA Football with my friends I thought it would be so cool to see my number on my team in that game. And now people are suing over it because they never amounted to anything in the next level.

# 249 kingkilla56 @ 09/27/13 12:58 AM

It was inevitable. Hold onto your NCAA14s. They will be worth a decent penny in a few years.

# 250 GeneralMike @ 09/27/13 01:09 AM

Sad to see it go. Not much more I can say about it. Golden Goose killed.

# 251 DJ @ 09/27/13 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolverinemaniac


	on the bright side I no longer have a need for a console, I can cancel my next gen preorder and save some money. Back to exclusively pcgaming for me. PEACE

I may just go with a 3DS XL and keep playing my PS3/360 for a few more years, unless the next-gen sports titles blow me away.

# 252 T-Moar @ 09/27/13 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingkilla56


	It was inevitable. Hold onto your NCAA14s. They will be worth a decent penny in a few years.

Oh, you mean like College Hoops 2k8 is now?

# 253 Spooky @ 09/27/13 01:13 AM

Kinda bummed. End of an era. My fondest memory was being piss drunk back in 2001-2002ish and trying to play a game, but being so blitzed that we couldn't get past the opening screen and literally rolling around on the ground laughing with a buddy at the intro which had every teams mascot come out and do a little 10 second dance before moving on to the next one (I believe it was NCAA 2002 that did that.) Good times.

To be honest, I'm starting to age out of video games (early 30's), and with the little free time I do still have, I have found that NCAA was one of the games that has taken a backseat big time over the past few years. I would always buy it, but increasingly, would end up trading it in by mid-October for something else.

After this lawsuit, this game will never be the same, even if they were to pick the franchise back up in 3-4 years. Rosters would be completely anonymous to avoid another fiasco, as this case now sets a precedent for future lawsuits.

Bon voyage, NCAA. Thank you for getting me through the boring summers of my teens and 20's.

# 254 phenom2311 @ 09/27/13 01:16 AM

EA, the NCAA, and the schools that ran scared of this lawsuit should be ashamed of themselves. Does any of them have any critical, creative thinkers among their ranks? If they did, they wouldn't even be in this mess. EA should have went with complete, and I mean complete, randomization right out of the box for the NCAA game, while allowing FULL customization once the game was in the hands of the consumers. So instead of shipping a game with Texas A&M quarterback #2, with Johnny Manziel's measurements, class, and attributes... You ship the game with Texas A&M quarterback #18, 6'5" 230 and random attributes and class. Then allow FULL customization for users to go in and change things to make everything accurate as they see fit, if they chose to do so. I have no doubts that a ton hardcore NCAA fans would have swept through each roster doing this and then sharing them. Me personally, I don't even need accurate players. Just give me the teams.

Much needed and requested improvements to Teambuilder could have helped as well. Using Teambuilder, if it were worth a damn, you wouldn't have to be concerned with schools dropping out because TB would be sufficient enough to recreate those schools right down to the socks, while having EVERY uniform combination that school has, meaning more logo slots and more than 4 jerseys, 2 helmets, and 2 pants. However, EA sat back and did nothing, and in my opinion, allowed this to happen by being stale, lazy thinkers.

# 255 superxero27 @ 09/27/13 01:24 AM

The news sucks to hear, but what's worse is the "I told you so's" strutting about proclaiming their foresight. Did they turn out to be right, yes; BUT that does not mean the assertions were justified at the beginning, when there were options available for continuing the series. Supporting evidence available at the time is what's important in this instance, not what hindsight tells us.

If the resolution to the issue was going to come down to either changing the NCAA structure to allow paying players or simply cancelling the game, with no other choices; cancelling the game is easy and allows the NCAA to not really have to do the heavy thinking required to do the other option.

I wonder if EA will just shut down and lay off the team right away, wait for the real season to end, or keep a small team to work on as many customization options as possible? As much as I want to be optimistic about what the developers want (I suspect many of the devs would favor the last option if for no other reason than pride), I realize that what the "ground-level" people want is most often entirely irrelevant to management so I have to think layoffs/shutdown happen sooner rather than later.

# 256 loccdogg26 @ 09/27/13 01:25 AM

That "players are getting a free education" argument is getting old. Nothing in the world is free.

# 257 superxero27 @ 09/27/13 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phenom2311


	EA, the NCAA, and the schools that ran scared of this lawsuit should be ashamed of themselves. Does any of them have any critical, creative thinkers among their ranks? If they did, they wouldn't even be in this mess. EA should have went with complete, and I mean complete, randomization right out of the box for the NCAA game, while allowing FULL customization once the game was in the hands of the consumers. So instead of shipping a game with Texas A&M quarterback #2, with Johnny Manziel's measurements, class, and attributes... You ship the game with Texas A&M quarterback #18, 6'5" 230 and random attributes and class. Then allow FULL customization for users to go in and change things to make everything accurate as they see fit, if they chose to do so. I have no doubts that a ton hardcore NCAA fans would have swept through each roster doing this and then sharing them. Me personally, I don't even need accurate players. Just give me the teams. Much needed and requested improvements to Teambuilder could have helped as well. Using Teambuilder, if it were worth a damn, you wouldn't have to be concerned with schools dropping out because TB would be sufficient enough to recreate those schools right down to the socks, while having EVERY uniform combination that school has, meaning more logo slots and more than 4 jerseys, 2 helmets, and 2 pants. However, EA sat back and did nothing, and in my opinion, allowed this to happen by being stale, lazy thinkers.

For all we know, the actual developers had great ideas; the problem is developers can only work within the constraints (financial, man-hours, etc) place upon them by management. Does EA the company have a history of resting on its laurels instead of innovating, indeed, but I think we go too far by labeling the entire developer-force as lazy and uncritical.

# 258 RogueHominid @ 09/27/13 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big FN Deal


	I normally avoid this silly, imo, debate but I absolutely love this post. It's filled which such common sense and it's funny how it seemed to get glossed over. How on Earth agreeing to a scholarship should suddenly mean a school owns the rights to a person is quite absurd, no matter how well intentioned it may be. If I'm not mistaken, a student athlete has to maintain a certain GPA in order to be eligible to play sports, similar to how an academic scholarship works and that should be the end of it, none of this asinine "we own you" garbage. Again, this post pretty much should put this nonsense to rest. On topic, LMAO at people mad/blaming the lawsuit for this instead of EA for using player likenesses. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story though, lol. EDIT- Even more hilarious, EA won't even admit to any wrong doing, in spite of everything but those in the lawsuit are the scumbags. smdh For its part, EA Sports -- which will not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement agreement -- said in a statement Thursday that "we follow rules that are set by the NCAA -- but those rules are being challenged by some student-athletes." http://espn.go.com/college-football/...-football-game

Good post. One of the problems with sports culture is that it makes chattel of people. I think student-athletes should be able to negotiate for compensation if someone other than the university wants to use their likeness. And they should certainly be able to leverage their popularity for profit in the ways you suggest.

Perhaps I'm cold, but I also think it's great that EA is being forced off of NCAA. I don't bear anyone ill-will by any stretch, but I'd love to see one of two things happen as a result of this hiatus: 1) someone else come in, re-imagine what a sim college football game could look and play like and deliver a better product, or 2) have EA revisit the series in a couple of years with new talent and a fresh approach.

Not having an NCAA game at all is obviously the most immediate outcome, but if we aren't getting one because there are legitimate legal issues with the way players' likenesses were used to market the game, then I'm okay not having a game until those legal issues are settled. I don't want to play a game that's potentially exploitative of individuals and is therefore legally and ethically questionable that bad; I'll play something else.

# 259 goillini03 @ 09/27/13 01:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trojan Man


	Good post. One of the problems with sports culture is that it makes chattel of people. I think student-athletes should be able to negotiate for compensation if someone other than the university wants to use their likeness. And they should certainly be able to leverage their popularity for profit in the ways you suggest. Perhaps I'm cold, but I also think it's great that EA is being forced off of NCAA. I don't bear anyone ill-will by any stretch, but I'd love to see one of two things happen as a result of this hiatus: 1) someone else come in, re-imagine what a sim college football game could look and play like and deliver a better product, or 2) have EA revisit the series in a couple of years with new talent and a fresh approach. Not having an NCAA game at all is obviously the most immediate outcome, but if we aren't getting one because there are legitimate legal issues with the way players' likenesses were used to market the game, then I'm okay not having a game until those legal issues are settled. I don't want to play a game that's potentially exploitative of individuals and is therefore legally and ethically questionable that bad; I'll play something else.

Legally and ethically questionable comment being used from a guy with an R. Kelly signature.

# 260 roadman @ 09/27/13 01:39 AM

Life goes on for me, but when people lose jobs with families to support, that's the bad end of the deal for anyone in that situation.

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