We sports gamers have begged and begged for this day to come, and we finally got it.
Our childhood memories are being reborn with EA Sports’ new College Football 25 game that dropped July 19 on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, and I am all in for it.
For those who don’t know about this exciting video game and the series of games that came before it, here’s a little backstory. The series of NCAA Football video games was launched with the release of Bill Walsh College Football in 1993. Electronic Arts, the California-based company that developed the game, offered a history of the series back in 2013 at https://www.ea.com/news/ncaa-football-history.
In the old series, gamers could choose from various modes that to get the most out of the experience. For example, Road to Glory was a career-based mode where gamers could create their own players and play for a team, while Dynasty allowed you to develop the trajectory of a team’s legacy. Those are just some of the reasons why NCAA Football is considered one of the most profound games among gamers.
NCAA Football 13 to me as a young kid was everything, as it brings back so many great memories. I remember playing the Road to Glory mode, where you build your character, including the position you wanted to play in college, and your character would go through high school to try to get big offers from big colleges like LSU, Alabama, Georgia, etc.
I could play NCAA Football 13 for hours and wouldn’t get bored at all because they had so many good game modes, including Mascot mode, where you would play with the team mascot. In the Team Builder mode, you could customize everything, like logos, uniforms, fields, stadiums, mascots, programs and rosters. Once you made your final touches, you could share your teams with the world by uploading your creation. And I wasn’t alone in my awe for these NCAA Football games.
Jaylan Richardson, who graduated from Guilford in May with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, echoes my sentiments on how the NCAA Football games set themselves apart. “What separated NCAA from other sports games was the storyline and how you could start from high school,” he said.
“Afterward, you would make your way to college and eventually import your character into the Madden game, just like in real life when they (players) get drafted to an NFL team. This made it interesting,” Richardson said.
“You could continue the character legacy and no other sports game was like that … personally, that was my favorite part of the game”.
In a Feb. 22 article, ESPN staff writer Michael Rothstein explained why EA Sports discontinued such a popular game. “The game stopped in part because of a lawsuit surrounding name, image and likeness rights in 2013. EA Sports discontinued the game and settled with former college football players who sued the company.”
Back in 2013, ESPN reported that the former players alleged that EA Sports was using their jersey numbers, skin tones, heights, weights and other specific information in video games without their permission, and without compensating them.
My first reaction when EA Sports announced it was discontinuing the game was shock. Other games were enjoyable, but nothing would come close to NCAA Football for me. The newer version of the Xbox console allowed for older versions of video games to be converted and played on the newer Xbox, but NCAA Football wasn’t a game that could be converted.
Guilford business major TJ Scott had feelings similar to mine when he heard the EA Sports NCAA Football games were being discontinued.
“Overall I just felt disappointed, because the experience of the game was elite and the other football games weren’t like NCAA from the commentators to the atmosphere of the fans,” he said. “The storyline was just something special.”
Just getting this game back is huge and exciting. I’m glad EA was able to get past a 10-year drought because this is what the video game industry needed.
In March, apnews.com reported that “more than 10,000 athletes have accepted an offer from EA Sports to have their likeness featured in its upcoming college football video game.” This will make the game more exciting. Now you don’t have to wait until the new Madden game comes out to play with your favorite college players or players that you think are going to succeed in the NFL.
This spring, Avery Lilly, a sports management major at Guilford, shared his thoughts on how the new College Football game could potentially be the game of the year.
“There’s a strong possibility it can be because it has been years since this game was last played,” Lilly said.
“If they bring back all the game modes, including a connected franchise where you gather up all 32 people to play with and they (gamers) get to use their favorite team by choice for a whole season — and you get a chance to compete for bowl games and a National Championship — the sky’s the limit for this game.”
Editor’s note: On July 15, the New York Times reported that more than 14,000 college athletes opted to be included in EA Sports’ College Football 25. A smaller number actually will appear in the video game, but all who do will receive $600 each and a deluxe version of the game, according to the article.
