The recent change in college athletes being able to profit off of their image and likeness has had sports video game fans clamoring for a new NCAA Football release. Read to find out why the inevitable release of this series will take over the sports video game market.
Why EA Sports College Football Will Eclipse Madden
NCAA Football 14 is a game that continues to be cherished by lovers of sports-themed video games over eight years after its release by Electronic Arts. That was the last NCAA Football video game to be released on major consoles back in July of 2013.
Now that college athletes are able to profit off their image and likeness, one of the first announcements coming out of that was that EA would be rebooting the massively successful NCAA Football video game franchise. This has huge implications for the video game industry, and more specifically, sports-themed video games.
So Long, Madden
In a time when gameplay quality and originality in sports video games such as Madden and NHL (both EA releases) are seriously lacking, the announcement of NCAA Football’s reboot could not have come a moment too soon.
Madden gets lampooned by critics and users at large every year, but we keep playing it because it’s the only up to date football video game on the market. The reboot of NCAA Football by EA is a chance to right the Madden ship that’s been a problem for several years now.
EA Sports announced a projected release for the new version of NCAA Football back in December. According to sportingnews.com, Cory Moss who is the CEO of Collegiate Licensing Co., stated that EA Sports is planning to launch during the summer of 2023.
The release of that game will either coincide or likely take precedence over Madden 23, and EA certainly knows how unhappy fans are with Madden. It wouldn’t be a bad assumption to think that EA is putting a lot of their manpower into the development of the new launch of NCAA Football.
This is something that sports gaming fans have been hungry for for years, and there’s finally a date of projected release. While EA has other franchises that do well for them financially, few series have compared to the success of Madden.
Madden has been stagnant for a while now, and disappointed users are constantly sharing the woes of lackluster, unrealistic gameplay online. Now that Madden has a competitor, its popularity is going to wane noticeably once NCAA Football is released.
In terms of a pure Football game, it just feels like EA churns out the same game every year. It is a $60 roster update, as some have called it.
NCAA Football is going to become the most popular sports video game on the market upon release and will put all other EA releases to shame.
Massive Potential
This is the release that sports gamers have been waiting for and it will finally be coming to fruition in the not-too-distant future. The abundance of college teams is going to allow EA to create way more experiences for their users and a whole new layout for football gaming.
The good news is that because Madden is released on the same studio as NCAA Football will be, EA can bring all the best features over from Madden. A college football ultimate team with some of the best players from over the years and their signature seasons/games would be awesome.
EA should also allow for a season mode option where users can create a bracket at the end of the season rather than just the four team playoff. Additionally, a really cool update would be the option to replay famous and iconic moments from over the years as well as play as teams from year’s past. EA also has a huge chance to cash in with a wide array of jersey selection for each team.
The 15+ months long wait will be worth it as long as EA uses this reboot as a chance to create a football game that plays well and actually sees significant changes from what they release every year with Madden. If it’s done well, this has the chance to be the greatest sports video game franchise yet and a cash cow for EA.
