EA Sports has confirmed the surprise return of its college basketball video game series—this time reportedly with women’s programs.
Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive each stopped making college hoops games in the late 2000s because of poor sales, canceling the franchises years before legal trouble put EA’s college football series on hold in 2014.
But after EA brought back its fan favorite NCAA Football title last summer, it said Monday it would try again with an NCAA Basketball title. Extra Points reported an expected release date of 2028 and the inclusion of women’s teams.
“Bring the Madness,” wrote EA Sports on X in a post Monday that received 14,000 reposts in just 30 minutes. “Let’s run it back.”
Video games continue to increase exposure for women’s athletes; EA introduced women’s soccer players to its popular Ultimate Team mode a couple of years ago, while Take-Two has implemented WNBA stars in its pro basketball game. College women’s basketball has never been represented in a console game made by a major publisher.
EA had been locked out of basketball altogether on consoles since its once-dominant NBA Live series petered out, and Take-Two’s NBA 2K series took over. EA doesn’t make NBA Live anymore.
Presumably, the revived NCAA Basketball series, which may go by a different title than the old franchise, will use real player names and likenesses, unlike its predecessor, which only used player numbers and generic images. Those images, though, were close enough to actual players for former UCLA star Ed O’Bannon to launch an antitrust suit that eventually led to college players being allowed to capitalize on their NIL rights.
For College Football 25, EA Sports offered $600 payments to players who opted in to the game using their NIL. That number rose to $1,500 for College Football 26, and EA will reportedly compensate universities for their NIL based on how often users play as those schools in the game.
This is the third announced sports game comeback from EA Sports in the past few years. In addition to NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball, it is also resuming its Skate series, which will go head-to-head with Activision’s remaster of Tony Hawk 3 + 4 on next-gen consoles.
