Deep in my heart I always knew this day would come — or at the very least I really, really, really hoped it would.
On Tuesday, it did.
EA Sports is back in the college football business. The video game developer announced they’re returning to the space for the first time since 2013 in the not so distant future with a new installment of arguably their most popular title — EA Sports College Football.
The makers of the Madden NFL and FIFA series struck gold year-after-year in the late 1990s through early 2010s with their NCAA Football simulation game that led college football fans across the country to flock to GameStop locations each August.
Freaking GameStop, man.
Many questions still surround the return of the game, including when it will be released, which consoles and platforms it will be available on and whether or not real player names, images and likenesses will be used.
We do know there will be more than 100 FBS programs represented in the game thanks to a partnership with collegiate licensing company CLC. How the name, image and likeness legislation progresses through the NCAA, state and federal legislatures in the coming months could determine if we’ll see real players with their real names for the first time without a bootlegged PS2 memory card you bought off a sketchy Javascript website for $20.
There are a lot of questions left to be answered with this announcement from EA. It is also worth noting EA’s most recent installments of Madden have received… um… less than stellar reviews.
Regardless, there is one thing we know for certain and it is the thing we’ve been waiting nearly eight years to hear…
College football video games are coming back.
