EA Sports sent shockwaves through the entire landscape of college athletics on Monday morning, as the company announced the official return of the college basketball video game.
When EA Sports College Football 25 was first announced in February of 2021, college sports fans from across the globe were chomping at the bit to hop into the game and represent their favorite programs. Now, the Texas A&M Aggies will be playable on the gridiron and the court.
The developers dropped the bombshell via their social media accounts with a simple teaser of a basketball in the game with the EA Sports logo plastered on it. As one would imagine, following the uproar of approval for the new college football games, all sports fans weighed in with pure excitement in anticipation of the first college basketball game since 2009.
According to reports from Extra Points founder and publisher Matt Brown, it is expected to be released in 2028-2029, per documents he obtained from the College Licensing Company (CLC). The memo did not release much information regarding the game itself, but it did explain how EA Sports got to this point.
The CLC reportedly sent a request out to create a college basketball video game in 2024, in which five companies expressed interest in developing the game and three filed bids to obtain the rights to develop it. Due to Brown and company obtaining such documentation regarding the happenings over the last few months with companies bidding over the right to produce a new college basketball video game, EA Sports was forced to release the news at some point soon.
Brown also stated that, unlike the games of the past, the new college basketball edition released by EA Sports will fall under a new title.
While the former games also only included men’s basketball programs, Brown is reporting that the company will be including women’s basketball programs as well. The EA Sports College Football franchise has compensated the athletes in the game with a set amount, plus the benefit of obtaining a copy of the game if they opt in, which raises questions regarding compensation for each basketball player, both men and women, across the country.
When CFB 26 was officially dropped on all platforms, it made over $500 million in sales in the first two weeks. It tremendously exceeded EA’s initial estimate of around $150 million in revenue, while also setting a record-breaking launch of over 5 million unique players and more than 500,000 playing in EA Play’s trial. According to estimates from Outkick, 2.2 million players purchased the early-access edition, which cost $99.99 for the bonus features.
With EA reaching historic marks in the release of college football video games, the same can be expected when the company officially drops the first college basketball title in more than a decade.
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