The return of EA Sports’ college basketball video game series is in danger, according to a report from Sports Business Journal on Thursday.
According to the report, the video game is on hold because talks between EA Sports, the Collegiate Licensing Company, and the NCAA have reached an impasse. There are other parties involved as EA Sports attempts a reboot of its college basketball franchise. The SBJ reported that the EA Sports snag is due to individual colleges entertaining deals with rival video game developer 2K Sports for its own college basketball game.
EA Sports wants exclusivity in the college basketball video game world. It doesn’t want to share the stage, and EA Sports believed it had the stage to itself back in June when its proposal for a wide-ranging game involving every Division I men’s and women’s team was picked by the Collegiate Licensing Company.
But 2K Sports has stepped in since, and its desire to create its own college basketball video franchise has a narrower focus that would only include the sport’s most well-known brands.
According to SBJ, if EA Sports cannot secure the exclusivity it desires, it could potentially abandon the project altogether.
The game developer first teased the return of its college basketball series back in June. The last entry in the “NCAA Basketball” series came in 2009. With the smashing success of the revived college football title, EA Sports is hoping to expand its college portfolio.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
