As we had announced last February, the college soccer game returns to consoles but instead of in 2022 as it was believed finally rumors have been confirmed and it will be in July 2023.
EA Sports College Football was rumored to launch sometime in 2023, but now it looks like we have an official release date. A new report claims that EA Sports’ return to college football video games will be in July 2023.
One of EA Sports College Football’s biggest concerns right now is the customization of the templates. Even without the NIL agreements that allow student-athletes to benefit from their image, many fans were hopeful that the ability to customize player rosters would make its way into the game. Unfortunately for those fans, it doesn’t seem to be the case for now.
“Since the policies surrounding the use of the name, image and likeness of student-athletes have not yet been finalized, the current proposal put forward by the NCAA does not allow the current student-athlete NIL to be used,” the proposal says.
He continues: “With this in mind, EA proposes to release a game with completely generic avatars that CANNOT be interpreted as a current player (facial features, hometown, ethnicity, body structure, etc.) and is committed to putting controls in place to ensure that there will be no way for consumers to manipulate and edit the game’s avatars to create a resemblance to current players.”
The company references the fact that similar controls exist for The 10 Madden NFL 21 college programs.
As for the system, EA Sports is developing it for the “fifth generation of hardware.” That indicates that it will be on the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S, while it will skip the PS4 and Xbox One. This makes sense, as the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will be in their third year by then. The proposal makes no mention of the PC release of EA Sports College Football.
As for the DLC, EA Sports devoted an entire paragraph to the matter. In part, the section talks about DLC being an “important factor” in EA games. The DLC allows EA to “extend and enhance the experience and offer ways to add more value to players.” It also mentions the additional revenue it generates for the company while remaining “always optional” for players.
At the moment, the only thing that has been fixed is the arrival of the game. Release dates, schools, and characters are subject to change. It is possible that over the next year the NCAA will reach an agreement that will allow student-athletes to benefit from their names. This would certainly lead to discussions to have players and customization of the list in the game.
A NIL agreement will also see schools like Notre Dame and Northwestern reevaluate their decisions not to participate in the game. We’ll have to wait and see what happens to everything before the hopeful launch of EA Sports College Football in July 2023.
