"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 Meanwhile, the NCAA and a number of conferences have withdrawn their support of our game.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."
This could possibly be the death of college sports video games, period. I was hoping that 2K would probably bring back college basketball but after this because of the legal ramifications, that's looking real bleak.
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.
Yes, it's the students who are being selfish. It's not like FBS college coaches have seen their salaries increase 81% over a five year span.
30 years ago, the highest paid coach was Jackie Sherrill at Texas A&M, who was making the controversial sum of $285,000 per year. Now, Nick Saban makes $5,650,000 per year. 52 college coaches make more than $2 million per year, and 15 college coaches make more than $3 million per year.
What did students get in 1983? A free education. What do students get in 2013? A free education. Meanwhile the revenues blow up and everyone gets rich around them.
But you're right, it's the kids, it's the "I gotta get mine" generation that is causing all of this downfall.
So what choice do they have? Everyone on here says they "choose" to go to college. Nonsense. An 18 year old can't join the NFL. Jadaveon Clowney has no desire to stay in South Carolina, but the NFL's esoteric rules (bolstered by their untouchable anti-trust exemption) means he's stuck working for free in South Carolina. Oh he gets a free education? He's not going to graduate because he's going to leave as soon the rules allow him to, thus he has very limited choice. He's worth millions on the open market so long as he performs upkeep on his skills, but in order to maintain the millions that he's worth he has to work for no money so that South Carolina and the SEC can make millions.
I'm not saying students should get paid. I don't think they should. I think the NCAA and the government needs to pressure the NFL into opening a developmental league for 18-21 year olds so young players actually have a choice, which will end most of these lawsuits.
People actually believe with Next Generation and EA focus, that they will continue to put resources into this last NCAA 14 game?
This Sucks, because this is a solid game that if they really did put resources into it and made the game better, and fixed a lot of community requests, or added some features in a patch, like playoffs? Would go down as a classic. Just dreams im afraid. I will let go, and move on with Next Generation. Some better playing sports games I will focus my attention to, like FIFA and 2K basketball. Maybe now i will have time to spend on NHL, when it comes to Next Gen.
It's too bad for the people who like the game, but I am glad to see EA get hit hard by this. Hopefully the costs they have to pay out will be plenty, forcing them to rethink their awful business strategy of buying licenses and exclusively and putting out half-you know what games. EA Sports is just as pathetic and disgusting as the NCAA is.
EA football games have been a disgrace this generation. Bug filled messes, no innovation, and no interest in actually replicating the actual sport of football. Modes are weak and poorly throughout and implemented. Just a comedy of errors, year after year.
It sucks if people lose jobs, but with a product this poor some of them should. Whether that's the suits or the devs, something has to change. I doubt it will though, and don't have much faith for gen 4, unless other companies also make football games. Probably not worth it to make a college game though, with all of this going on.
If they somehow changed the way they did things and came back in the future with a real football game based on football, that would be cool. Big time if though.
"EA Sports provided athletic departments with more licensing royalties than any other non-apparel licensee, according to data released by CLC."
I wonder how much royalties they paid to the athletic departments of all the schools. For schools like Bama, Ohio State, and Notre Dame this may not mean much but to the lower tier schools this may be significant as that was basically free money to their department to have their school in the game. It seems this lawsuit did more harm than good. Yes, I believe the student-athletes should have a right to make money while in school (either by having a job, signing with a marketing agency, etc) but the NCAA doesn't allow that which I dont see as being fair as you are taking someone's right away of trying to make money. To me, the NCAA is the most to blame for this. It sucks we wont have a game but I hope this puts the NCAA in check and someone starts monitoring them. I feel there may not be an NCAA as a whole in the next 10 years because of all of this. Only time will tell.
It's too bad for the people who like the game, but I am glad to see EA get hit hard by this. Hopefully the costs they have to pay out will be plenty, forcing them to rethink their awful business strategy of buying licenses and exclusively and putting out half-you know what games. EA Sports is just as pathetic and disgusting as the NCAA is.
EA football games have been a disgrace this generation. Bug filled messes, no innovation, and no interest in actually replicating the actual sport of football. Modes are weak and poorly throughout and implemented. Just a comedy of errors, year after year.
It sucks if people lose jobs, but with a product this poor some of them should. Whether that's the suits or the devs, something has to change. I doubt it will though, and don't have much faith for gen 4, unless other companies also make football games. Probably not worth it to make a college game though, with all of this going on.
If they somehow changed the way they did things and came back in the future with a real football game based on football, that would be cool. Big time if though.
Sorry to all that liked the game.
Please. They're going to update the rosters and change the lighting elements by 15% and call it Madden 2015. They're going to continue to release crappy DLC's and expansions for SW:ToR, and they'll keep mutilating all the great games that BioWare has established. And because gamers are lazy, they'll keep eating this crap up, and complain about it being bad...again. And EA will keep making money.
It's not that EA has poor business strategy. It's that they can use poor business tactics and still make a profit. "Hey Gearbox, check this out. I literally put $50 into developing the new Madden, and it sold half a million copies the first day! Can you believe these idiots?"
With as many people as I see complaining and nitpicking every single little detail down to a thread that was stitched wrong on a jersey, I'm honestly surprised so many people are disappointed.
Also.. this won't magically improve Madden any more. It's just going to cost a lot of people their job. If there's a chance of EA having to pay up to thousands, there's no way they will keep the entire staff employed and just shift resources.
I'm disappointed because I felt like 2014 was a serious improvement and it erased a lot of my concerns and turn offs from NCAA 13.
You can't tell me someone in Southern California wasn't putting some money into O'bannon's pockets back then either.. I'm sure he feels real exploited.
The whole thing is a god damn joke IMO. Half the players in NCAA don't even look like their real life counterpart. Just think about the amount of jersey numbers that change and then the roster makers in the community have to edit. The only confirmed real life counterparts are the guys who have been cover athletes or have been in special game modes like the Heisman challenge thing. I could go on and on..
I wish we could have just got one good next-gen NCAA game. The case couldn't have come to a head at worse time. We're all ready stuck in limbo with current gen consoles because of great games like Grand Theft Auto V, The Last of Us, and soon to be Beyond: Two Souls.
Now everyone will have to hang on to consoles for NCAA too..
Ya a "fallback option" that will no longer be viable in the future, which is basically the death penalty for this franchise. For those saying turning this game into a Teambuilder type game and allowing users to create teams, that "roster sharing" is now deemed illegal.
Kinda sucks but looks like I'll be playing out my 60 year dynasty and/or converting to Madden if they put out a decent game next year.
The people who bitched and nitpicked the game every year are now disappointed because it was the only NCAA football game out there. Whether someone liked it or not is besides the fact, it was the only college football game. Now there's nothing. IMO, there's been some years where I played NCAA Football for a couple months then never played it again, other years I played it for a full year plus some; I just never took it for granted because it's the only game out there where I could play with my favorite college teams. I don't know, whole thing sucks.
Ya a "fallback option" that will no longer be viable in the future, which is basically the death penalty for this franchise. For those saying turning this game into a Teambuilder type game and allowing users to create teams, that "roster sharing" is now deemed illegal.
Kinda sucks but looks like I'll be playing out my 60 year dynasty and/or converting to Madden if they put out a decent game next year.
Roster sharing has not been deemed illegal. This was a settlement not a verdict. As Pasta Padre's article said, EA could keep Teambuilder alive and build a game around it but its not feasible because they would have to constantly monitor and pull down content that infringes copyrights.
It's definitely sad to see the series likely be over. As a kid, NCAA Football is what got me into gaming. At the same time, the way the series had been going, it almost needed to die. It's just a little sad that we never got the playoff or full 85-man rosters. There was a lot of potential there for the next-gen games to be very good. At the same time, I don't feel bad at all for EA Sports the way they treated the series in the current gen. NCAA Football 14 was actually a decent game but it took them till the end of the current gen to produce a good game.
I'm just hoping this means Madden will get much better. I'd love to see coaching carousel, the ability to be an offensive and defensive coordinator, in-game updates, etc from NCAA make their way over to Madden. What I'm hoping comes out of this is that we good one really good football video game as opposed to two mediocre games like we have been getting. Unfortunately, I fear we'll end up getting one mediocre game.
The problem was never with EA and the game... the problem was always with NCAA and the rules of amateurism.
Sure EA pinches a pretty penny on what they spend money on, but they've had no issue with licensing. They rarely skimped on licensing in games, and you can tell from the music, to logos, to players in ALL their games (not just NCAA, not just sports, but every genre under the EA umbrella).
The issue is that EA wants player likeness, but NCAA rules forbid the players from making money off it. The settlement of the lawsuit isn't so much coming from EA (they know they would have to pay eventually), it's coming from pressure from the NCAA.
The NCAA knows their rules on amateurism are under fire, and they didn't want a lawsuit to drag on and have their policies under a microscope again in a courtroom.
Those who pay attention to the NCAA know change is coming. Conference Commissioners say it, big name coaches say it, Presidents are now saying it. It's just a matter of time before the NCAA changes their rules regarding player representation.
When that happens, college football will be free to return with player licensing. But until the NCAA changes, there won't be a football or basketball game.
"EA Sports provided athletic departments with more licensing royalties than any other non-apparel licensee, according to data released by CLC."
Yes, I believe the student-athletes should have a right to make money while in school (either by having a job, signing with a marketing agency, etc) but the NCAA doesn't allow that which I dont see as being fair as you are taking someone's right away of trying to make money.
Actually, the NCAA does allow players to have jobs. There are a lot of players that work during the summer to make money. NCAA has no rule not allowing athletes to work. There are limitations to what they can do (mostly around not being paid a ridiculous amount for their work) to try and keep things fair but there is nothing that says they can't have a job. Now, they can't do marketing and stuff like that but that's certainly understandable in my opinion.
I really don't care if players get paid or not but I'm not too big into this idea that players are victims. They get to go to school for free, get free food, get somewhere to live for free, and some even get free publicity and fame that will give them a leg up once they leave college. Nothing is stopping these guys from getting a summer job and making money to support themselves while school is in. I get that they make these schools a lot of money but these schools also give them a great opportunity. The money they get in form of scholarships, food, housing, etc is probably more (and in some cases considerably more) then they would make if the NFL had a development league and the teams were paying them. Look at all the developmental leagues around the world, those guys aren't making much money at all.
If guys really wanted to, they could send their tape up to CFL teams and go that route instead of college. The reason they don't is it's much harder for them to get a job in the CFL than a college scholarship at a Division 1 school and the CFL won't pay them much of anything. And they also won't get the exposure they will in college. College offers a lot more than just scholarship money. It's not a bad deal at all for the players.
Yes, it's the students who are being selfish. It's not like FBS college coaches have seen their salaries increase 81% over a five year span.
30 years ago, the highest paid coach was Jackie Sherrill at Texas A&M, who was making the controversial sum of $285,000 per year. Now, Nick Saban makes $5,650,000 per year. 52 college coaches make more than $2 million per year, and 15 college coaches make more than $3 million per year.
What did students get in 1983? A free education. What do students get in 2013? A free education. Meanwhile the revenues blow up and everyone gets rich around them.
But you're right, it's the kids, it's the "I gotta get mine" generation that is causing all of this downfall.
So what choice do they have? Everyone on here says they "choose" to go to college. Nonsense. An 18 year old can't join the NFL. Jadaveon Clowney has no desire to stay in South Carolina, but the NFL's esoteric rules (bolstered by their untouchable anti-trust exemption) means he's stuck working for free in South Carolina. Oh he gets a free education? He's not going to graduate because he's going to leave as soon the rules allow him to, thus he has very limited choice. He's worth millions on the open market so long as he performs upkeep on his skills, but in order to maintain the millions that he's worth he has to work for no money so that South Carolina and the SEC can make millions.
I'm not saying students should get paid. I don't think they should. I think the NCAA and the government needs to pressure the NFL into opening a developmental league for 18-21 year olds so young players actually have a choice, which will end most of these lawsuits.
Clowney isn't working for free. He is getting compensated via scholarship. To say "free education" like it's just getting paid in peanuts is asinine IMO. It costs $ to go to most of these schools, $ that most of these guys don't have. I never went to a university b/c of money. Some are getting opportunities that, if not for their athletic talents and luck, they couldn't get into a community college.
You ever see Twitter? I saw the phrase "sorry to half to report that my injury will require surgery"!!! HALF!!! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!! Does that seem like he is college educated?