NCAA Football 14: The Benefits Of EA Sports

Growing up, video games were something that I enjoyed playing. I especially anticipated every new sports video game’s debut. Whether it was the new “Call of Duty” game or “MLB the Show,” they were a large part of some of mine and my friends’ most cherished childhood memories. I looked forward to Christmas because I knew exciting, new sports video games waited in my stocking for me to unwrap and master. After receiving “NCAA Football 14,” and mastering the game levels and teams, I was extremely excited and hopeful that a new NCAA Football game would follow, but little did I know, that was going to be the last time I ever received a new college football or basketball video game, as EA Sports announced that it would not make another college

According to EA Sports, “It was three years ago when EA Sports announced it would no longer make its college sports video games. The announcement was made in the midst of a battle with former college players who alleged that the game maker and the NCAA were using their likenesses in the game without permission or compensation” (Darren, 2016). Apparently, EA Sports refused to compensate for the video games of college football and basketball players, as the game makers used their likenesses and identities within the games. College players argued that they did not receive any royalties or compensation for the sale of the video games, and without their college sports careers, the video games’ concepts and creation would not even exist. Kirshner’s position is as follows: “Paying athletes wasn't palatable for the NCAA. Not paying them wasn't palatable for EA, once the court battle started. It became a big legal problem for the game creator to use player likenesses without paying them for their faces and bodies, while the NCAA viewed the alternative – letting someone pay its players with real money – as anathema to the notion of amateurism that undergirds the organization's entire business model, (2016). Due to the numerous players conflicts it is clear that an agreement will not be realized between EA Sports

There is a way to bypass this without using the actual team’s players or coach’s names. The game will include preinstalled teams that are identified by the city they are located in and the colors of the actual college schools. The teams are named by the city and not the “real” university name, EA Sports is able to do so because, “they would not be subjected to legal action if they were to avoid using any logos or likeness beyond those colors” (Lind, 2014). For example, one of the preinstalled team is named Tuscaloosa, everyone will know that it represents The University of Alabama and EA will not get into legal trouble. Simply by using the, “Team Builder” option gives people who purchase the game, can create their own team, logos, players, overall rating of each player and where their team is located. This gives EA Sports the ability to not be in conflict with previous law suits against them because the person playing the game is creating everything independently. Although this idea sounds great on paper, people who purchase this game will not want to take the great amount of time to create each team. I know that when I purchase a game, I like to immediately play and not have to “waste time” creating teams. I know that there are preinstalled teams, but those few teams would only benefit consumers who like them. This idea would be very hard to achieve and would not benefit everyone who await the return of