After a hiatus that lasted nearly two decades, EA Sports has announced the return of the college basketball video game franchise. The game is set to be released some time in 2028, and it has been confirmed that both men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams will be included for the first time. The series was discontinued following the 2009 release of \u201cNCAA Basketball 10,\u201d which was available to play on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The last game sold over 150,000 copies across all platforms, which represented a concerning decline in sales from the previous year. The game was not nearly as successful as the college football game that came out that year, though developers discontinued both game franchises within a four-year period.<\/p>\n
A primary reason that the college football and basketball franchises were initially discontinued was due to various roadblocks regarding the name, image and likeness of the players. The older games used real players but did not include their names.<\/p>\n
With the implementation of the NIL policy in 2021, many things in the college sports world changed drastically. With players now having the opportunity to be compensated in a plethora of ways, this policy opened up the opportunity to bring back the beloved college sports video games.<\/p>\n
Hope Hassmann, an incoming junior guard for the Idaho Vandals, is excited for the release of the game due to the value it will bring to the college basketball landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll kids grow up playing video games, especially the sport they want to play,\u201d Hassman said. \u201cI think it\u2019s just a great opportunity for everybody to get their name out there, especially smaller schools who can get their name on the map.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hassmann grew up playing the college basketball games with her older brother, but says she has a special appreciation for the games now that she is an active college player. One of her favorite aspects of the return of the games is that players are paid to participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing how much time and dedication we put towards our sport, it\u2019s so cool to see that it pays off and we\u2019re now getting money and brand deals. I think it\u2019s incredible. I think it just shows the growth of college sports and especially women\u2019s basketball,\u201d Hassmann said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool that we get the ability to be paid. It\u2019s such a cool opportunity to be a part of that in this new era of college sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
EA brought back the college football games starting in 2024, and the sales have increased exponentially. EA earned $500 million in revenue in the first two weeks, with 2.2 million people opting to pay extra for the deluxe pre-order bundle. Though the college basketball series will not officially make its return until 2028, it is likely that the game will succeed more than the older games, along with introducing more people to the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of things like that that can come out of having a college basketball game,\u201d said Arthur Moreira, head coach of the Idaho women\u2019s team. \u201cI think you can draw a lot of attention not only to women\u2019s basketball, but to college basketball in general. I think it\u2019s the right time to continue to develop the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the past handful of years, women\u2019s basketball has rapidly improved in mainstream popularity. The women\u2019s march madness tournaments as well as the WNBA have both seen a steep increase in ratings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s great that people are now wanting to watch. To be in the era of women\u2019s college basketball and seeing the growth of it, I just think it\u2019s a really cool opportunity to grow the game,\u201d Hassmann said. \u201cIn the two years that I\u2019ve been in college, I think there has been a dramatic change. All our hard work is paying off in a way that people are excited to watch and there\u2019s so much talk around women\u2019s basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Vandal and current New Mexico State forward, Julius Mims, predicts that the new game will be \u201ca big hit,\u201d similar to the new college football games. Mims recalls playing NBA 2K games with friends growing up, specifically in the mid 2010s. He thinks the biggest challenge that developers of the game will face is dictating ratings for the players on each team due to the number of Division-1 players compared to the NBA.<\/p>\n
Moreira spent a lot of time playing the college basketball franchise during his college years. Each year when the new game was released, he and his friends would spend two to three days editing every single roster and adding the players\u2019 names.<\/p>\n
Moreira said he spent most of his playing time focusing on the recruiting aspect rather than playing the game, joking that he got his start in college recruiting on NCAA Basketball 10. Once he began his coaching career, his strengths remained the same, establishing himself as an elite recruiter.<\/p>\n
Though he does not have much time for video games these days, Moreira looks forward to playing as the Vandals during the offseason.<\/p>\n
Moreira emphasized the impact that video games have on today\u2019s youth. He says that the game will be a good gateway to college sports. He became a Newcastle United FC fan in 1997 because he liked using them in a soccer video game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe games give kids a chance to get familiar with it. Maybe they\u2019ll find some school that has the color scheme that they like,\u201d Moreira said. \u201cAll of that brings new fans in. Our youth is so invested into gaming and in the virtual world that I feel like sometimes it is the best way to get their attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreira has friends in Brazil who became interested in college football after playing the new college football games, and he thinks the basketball games will have a similar effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all part of growing the game,\u201d Moreira said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of sports that I actually started watching because the game was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a hiatus that lasted nearly two decades, EA Sports has announced the return of the college basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":84308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-84307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114899225356580328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}