It's been some time since we've received any news on EA Sports College Football. Over the summer we learned about Dynasty mode making a return, supposedly bigger and better than ever. Other than that, we've seen nothing. No gameplay, only screenshots of specific mascots in the game's engine:

The game was announced back in 2021 and since then fans have been ecstatic to know a new game is on the way. It's going to be the first College Football video game since NCAA 14 released almost a decade ago.

But the main headline around the game is centered around the licensing issues for real College Athletes. For the first time, College Football players can be paid to use their likeness and image in the game. The payout is somewhere in the $5 million dollar region. This equates to about $500 dollars per player, which is not agreeable to several College Football personnel. The payout also doesn't include any royalties.

In fact, EA Sports was recently sued by the Bandr group, who alleges breach of contract with NIL payments to student athletes. This lead to the College Football Players Association to call for a boycott of the game. Since then, many have joined in on the debate whether or not people should wait before pre-ordering the game.

But despite the issues, the game is still making progress, according to EA Sports CEO Andrew Wilson.

EA Sports College Football Making Great Progress

During a Q&A at an Earnings call, Wilson took time to speak about the progress of EA Sports College Football.

Wilson acknowledged the licensing issues but also mentioned the “incredible progress” the team is making.

“Gameplay is really coming together, and really capturing all the action of pageantry, and the difference in college football versus the NFL,” said Wilson. “I feel really confident in what the team’s doing.”

However, Wilson also needed to comment about the licensing situation, and how they plan to tackle the issue.

“We’re working through the licence situation broadly – as of now, we’ve got many if not most of the schools licensed as part of our licensing platform. We’ll continue to work with the various governing bodies of the sport in the country, and some key third-party partners we have, around how and when to include college athletes themselves into the game.”

It seems from his end that progress is being made. Only time will tell though what will happen between the two parties. Though in all honesty, these kinds of lawsuits and contract disputes happen every, day, so I personally wouldn't be surprised if things somehow got worse.

Wilson ended things on a optimistic note.

“I’m confident that this will be an incredible re-emergence of that college football experience [and] that it will capture all the action and pageantry, driven by the schools and all that goes on with the schools in the context of this game. And I do believe that we’ll find a place where we can work in lockstep with the athletes for inclusion in the game as well.”

We also feel a solution can and will be found.

Conclusion

It's been an interesting couple of years for EA Sports. We've got the return of College Football games. Additionally, FIFA is out the door as FC makes its way to the pitch, and we're soon getting the annual release of a new Madden NFL, and NHL game.

We'll see how the sports game tycoon deals with adversity in a time of change. You can read the full transcript of the Earnings Call, in case you're interested to see what else they discussed.

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