NCAA Football 14 News Post

Supreme Court Rejects Hearing of O'Bannon Case

05:08 PM - October 3, 2016 by RaychelSnr

The future of college sports video games is murky at best after the Supreme Court refused to hear the Ed O'Bannon case.

At this point, that means the O'Bannon case as currently decided is how things are. At this time the ruling stands as follows (Per the USA Today article linked above):

Quote:


	"Instead, Monday�s decision leaves intact the 9th Circuit�s dual rulings that: The NCAA�s regulations are subject to antitrust scrutiny, and rules limiting football and men�s basketball players to receiving tuition, fees, room, board and books violate antitrust laws. While antitrust law requires that schools be allowed to provide these athletes with scholarships that cover all of their costs of attending college, including travel and personal incidentals, �it does not require more,� such as what it termed �cash sums untethered to educational expenses.�"

Just over a month after Peter Moore declared that 'we'll be back' when it comes to NCAA Football, the future of college sports video games seems murky and uncertain.

For college video games to return will require a couple of things.

First, EA (or another publisher) will have to know there is no threat of litigation to proceed. Second, schools will want to know there is no threat of litigation to proceed as well.

Several schools began to pull out of EA's next gen college football title at the end, and that was one of several items which led EA to scrap the title. In an era of video games where people obsess over the authenticity of shoes and haircuts, having generic teams (and players) seems like a hard thing to sell.

What would lead to a game being possible is likely a resolution from the NCAA and member schools allowing players to get money for licensing their image -- which it seems there isn't much movement on at this time. While its a good thought to think that people would buy a game with generic teams and players with customization -- those types of games have never sold enough in the marketplace to justify high development costs required of AAA sports titles in 2016.

In short, without a way to license players officially (along with schools) its doubtful we see college sports games return to consoles.

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Member Comments

# 61 Mauer4MVP @ 10/13/16 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ndfan1993


	Again, we here are the minority not the majority of players. How many people have commented on this thread...and how many units of NCAA 14 were sold?

What do you even mean by this? NCAA 14 is already 4 cycles ago. Of course there won't be many people commenting.

# 62 ODogg @ 10/13/16 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhs_rizzo


	I would absolutely buy any college football or basketball game that came with completely generic rosters, even if there were no roster sharing. I don't see that happening any time soon though because I feel the majority of the people that buy college sports games are looking to play with their favorite players more so than us hardcore players that want to build programs with fake players. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Now see I know this is the perception here on OS but having worked with the rosters and talked to a LOT of people in video game stores and online through the years I don't believe it to be the case. The vast majority of people I've talked to about NCAA and its players, never knew about the named rosters and in fact, most didn't care if even the numbers were right or the players were like their real life counterparts.

I've known a ton of casual (non-OS) NCAA players throughout the years and the general idea is they just want their schools, the bowl games, music, etc to be right and they don't care about individual players.

I know it seems counter-intuitive but I do think a general NCAA game with the correct schools, music, mascots, and etc would sell quite well.

I honestly wonder if EA is doing polling and market research to verify that this is the case and, if so, then I expect it would mean we'd get a college football game sooner rather than later. I'm still not sure the numbers are there for a basketball game though, and specifically because individual players and their likenesses are more important in basketball than football.

# 63 R1zzo23 @ 10/13/16 12:55 PM

You're probably right OD. Most guys that I know that play it (my friends) don't play dynasty and just want to play with college teams and their stars. It seems like your experience with gamers has a higher sample size and would be more reflective of the gaming community.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

# 64 ODogg @ 10/13/16 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhs_rizzo


	You're probably right OD. Most guys that I know that play it (my friends) don't play dynasty and just want to play with college teams and their stars. It seems like your experience with gamers has a higher sample size and would be more reflective of the gaming community. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah I was sort of surprised myself, most people out in the "wild" just care about the teams, the schools, music, etc, not even about the stars really, and the few that do are ok with editing if they can a qb or two but for the most part don't even care that much about the players reflecting their true self either

# 65 ndfan1993 @ 10/14/16 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mauer4MVP


	What do you even mean by this? NCAA 14 is already 4 cycles ago. Of course there won't be many people commenting.

How many people were on this site actively contributing to the discussion about NCAA '14 when it came out.

I know you guys want your game back but people here ARE the minority of users of this product.

# 66 ODogg @ 10/14/16 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ndfan1993


	How many people were on this site actively contributing to the discussion about NCAA '14 when it came out. I know you guys want your game back but people here ARE the minority of users of this product.

Yes we are the vocal minority here on OS but the minority, in this case, is actually pretty reflective of the general publics desire to have an NCAA football game again. I know a ton of gamers (after all I'm 46 and know a lot of folks) and practically none of them are here on OS (I try I try!) and all I hear constantly is how people want their college football back!

So yeah, while we here are quite a bit more fanatical in following news articles, court cases, discussing it, etc , the idea that its mostly the hardcore OS crowd wanting a college football game back is not really a valid one - the vast majority of college football fans who also play video games want it back too.

# 67 jfsolo @ 10/14/16 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	I don't think the views expressed in this thread ARE the minority. I worked with Fairdale on his rosters and I can easily say the majority of the public just wants college football and do not care about the specific athletes or names like hardcore sports fans here on OS do. What I see mostly in this thread is people just want a college game back and they don't need named players or players just like their real life counterparts and that is exactly the sentiment of the majority of the general public as well. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Here's the thing, EA must have agreed with the sentiment that most people want the players in the game to be as close to their real like counterparts as legally possible, otherwise they wouldn't have had the likenesses so strongly resembling real people as to make any suits not only possible, but also winnable.

Now that the game is dead, more people are amenable to generic representations of players, because everyone is desperate for a game. During the Halcyon days of the series, when there was very little thought of likeness suits, people would be screaming about QB#5 from Kansas being Black in the game instead of White, or DT #92 from USC being 6'2" 290, instead of 6'3" 305. For most people those numbers were flat out representative of the real players. All the articles about NCAA 14 talk about Jadeveon Clowney being the top rated player in the game.

That one to two million people who played the game before do want it back, but IMO, only a few hundred thousand would buy it without strong likenesses of real players. I'd love to be proven wrong with an attempt by EA.

# 68 ODogg @ 10/14/16 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfsolo


	Here's the thing, EA must have agreed with the sentiment that most people want the players in the game to be as close to their real like counterparts as legally possible, otherwise they wouldn't have had the likenesses so strongly resembling real people as to make any suits not only possible, but also winnable. Now that the game is dead, more people are amenable to generic representations of players, because everyone is desperate for a game. During the Halcyon days of the series, when there was very little thought of likeness suits, people would be screaming about QB#5 from Kansas being Black in the game instead of White, or DT #92 from USC being 6'2" 290, instead of 6'3" 305. For most people those numbers were flat out representative of the real players. All the articles about NCAA 14 talk about Jadeveon Clowney being the top rated player in the game. That one to two million people who played the game before do want it back, but IMO, only a few hundred thousand would buy it without strong likenesses of real players. I'd love to be proven wrong with an attempt by EA.

Well see you think like me, that's what I always thought too until I really talked to a lot of people at game shops, at game conferences, online etc.

I do think you're right that EA has, at least in the past, fell into that belief as well. I (we) can only hope that EA is doing market research to see how well a game would go over with 100% correct everything in regards to conferences, teams, mascots, music EXCEPT just randomized players.

I do think there needs to be the ability for the consumer to edit players though or it may really hurt sales because, as we all know, there is a certain segment of the consumer, specifically hardcore people like here at OS, that do demand the players be accurate.

But its not like people like us think, for example, most people who were Buckeye fans back in the day wanted Troy Smith as their QB. They really didn't care about the lineman or even really the receivers. Some folks just want certain star players to be right and so if we are given the tools, they can have that. Now perhaps it'd have to be something where EA would eliminate roster share to make certain no one would sell the rosters, I don't know, but if I could edit my own team(s) and/or even share a save file over the internet (bypassing EA's locker/roster share) then I'd be happy with that and I think most of the hardcore people would be as well (although I'm sure they'd bitch about having to do it)

I guess we'll have to wait and see but my guess is that EA is already going down this route to see how well a game might do without player likeness, I mean its just logical to do so considering the current situation.

# 69 ndfan1993 @ 10/15/16 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfsolo


	Here's the thing, EA must have agreed with the sentiment that most people want the players in the game to be as close to their real like counterparts as legally possible, otherwise they wouldn't have had the likenesses so strongly resembling real people as to make any suits not only possible, but also winnable. Now that the game is dead, more people are amenable to generic representations of players, because everyone is desperate for a game. During the Halcyon days of the series, when there was very little thought of likeness suits, people would be screaming about QB#5 from Kansas being Black in the game instead of White, or DT #92 from USC being 6'2" 290, instead of 6'3" 305. For most people those numbers were flat out representative of the real players. All the articles about NCAA 14 talk about Jadeveon Clowney being the top rated player in the game. That one to two million people who played the game before do want it back, but IMO, only a few hundred thousand would buy it without strong likenesses of real players. I'd love to be proven wrong with an attempt by EA.

This ^^^^

If you make it generic or go back to the days of Bill Walsh where the teams and logos aren't even in the game how many people would buy it? Sure some "common" fans may clamor for the game but they want what they had before where they could sit down and play as Vince Young.

# 70 Aggies7 @ 10/15/16 10:34 PM

While I agree generic teams won't sell.

But I truly believe generic players to start dynasty would have no problem selling at all if all teams/stadiums/conferences were in

Honestly think most played to build a dynasty, well after two years most of these players are gone. So just make them all generic to start.

# 71 ODogg @ 10/16/16 12:37 PM

Yeah no one here in this thread has said to go to generic teams and names....so don't know why that's even being brought up tbh

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# 72 theepicman115 @ 10/17/16 05:33 PM

I don't care about the roster! I just want real college football teams and real conferences. I want to play as Texas a&m! I don't want generic schools or generic conferences. If EA could just give us generic players but real schools and real conferences. I will be happy.

# 73 Maverick04 @ 10/18/16 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theepicman115


	I don't care about the roster! I just want real college football teams and real conferences. I want to play as Texas a&m! I don't want generic schools or generic conferences. If EA could just give us generic players but real schools and real conferences. I will be happy.

Yep, heck the roster for 14 out of the box was garbage. I don't think anybody could claim "likeness" with the randomness of the launch roster. Plus not to mention the teams of roster makers on here do a fantastic job so rosters aren't a big deal at all. I would just ask for more freedom of editing. Can someone please tell me why through all this time they can't unlock whatever code that locks the ability to duplicate numbers in game? You can't tell me that ea devs and editors can do it but that if you took out the code that locks it that it would break the game. It's completely baffling to me

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