The wait is over — or, at least, the wait will be over at some undesignated point in the future.
EA Sports announced the return of the near-fabled NCAA football video games series, but no release date has been announced. According to ESPN, a 2021 edition is not expected.
The last time EA Sports released a college football video game was 2013, and the video game world has long clamored for a return. Complicating matters is the debate over whether college athletes should be compensated for the use of their names, images and likenesses — while the video game in the past didn’t use real player names, the identities of the game avatars were fairly easy to discern.
For those who never stopped believing… #EASPORTSCollegeFootball pic.twitter.com/ojDl9LzXuj
— EASPORTSCollege (@EASPORTSCollege) February 2, 2021
EA Sports vice president and general manager Daryl Holt told ESPN that the company will monitor the name, image and likeness legislation as it develops, but that won’t necessarily impact the game.
EA Sports has partnered with CLC, a college licensing company, to gain access to more than 100 teams, their uniforms, traditions and playbooks for use in the video game.
The game is in the very early developmental stages, and the name of the game will be rebranded to “EA Sports College Football” rather than “NCAA Football,” as it had been called previously.
• Andy Kostka can be reached at akostka@washingtontimes.com.
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