Electronic Arts canceled their popular sports franchise NCAA Football back in 2014 after a series of lawsuits from the student athletes for using their likeness without proper compensation. As a result, EA settled with the athletes for $60 million. Since then, EA has said there are no plans to bring back the franchise. However, in a recent interview with IGN, Chief Competitive Officer Peter Moore teased that NCAA Football could return.
He said that it was a “sad day” when EA decided it was best to cancel the series. He explained their decision came down from dealing with the class-action lawsuit from the students, when the publisher’s lawyers’ fees grew greater than potential revenue from the game.
Settlements are still going out so it’s tough to get into a lot of detail. But what happened was NCAA Football became the lightning rod for bigger issues regarding college athletes getting paid for their performance in not only football but all college sports. It was a sad day when we realized, ‘We are in the sights of a number of lawsuits.’ It was a sad day. When your lawyers fees are more than the revenue that you can expect to get in…
One day I know we’ll be back.
EA hasn’t tried to make future games sooner because they weren’t sure how long it would take for the dust to settle. The last game in the series was NCAA Football 14. Many fans of the series, including the voice of the franchise Kirk Herbstreit, would be thrilled if it did come back.
