By Gavin Boyle
After successfully relaunching its college football franchise, EA Sports now plans to bring back its college basketball video games.
“We’re up for the challenge, and we’re in the process of trying to figure out how that could come together,” said Sean O’Brien, EA Sports vice president of business development, when discussing a new college basketball game.
“You’re dealing with a passionate fan base who are at a special time in their lives, and then that carries with them for the rest of their life,” he added. “We felt that we really captured lightning in a bottle with college football. I think we would love to try to do the same for college basketball.”
Related: EA Sports College Football Dropped This Week. It’s Already Popular
Similar to its former college football franchise, the college basketball series was shut down in 2010 after running into problems with licensing and not being allowed to compensate players for using their name, image or likeness. In 2021, however, the Supreme Court made it legal for college athletes to receive payment for these things, opening the door to a new era of college sport-based video games.
Bring the Madness. Let’s run it back. #CBB #ItsInTheGame pic.twitter.com/iBNhGxn2yj
— EA SPORTS (@EASPORTS) June 30, 2025
In 2024, EA released EA Sports College Football — an immediate success, partially because of the interest it generated within the college football player community. The company offered at least $600 dollars to over 11,000 players along with a free copy of the game to include them in the game. It would likely follow a similar route for college basketball as it looks to encompass the entirety of the D1 level of the sport.
EA Sports College Basketball would also include historic rivalries between different colleges along with a March Madness tournament to end the season.
“The approach we’ve proposed is to create a game that includes all 350-plus NCAA Division I schools – both men’s and women’s teams included – with name, image and likeness compensation for all athletes, 32 conferences, the NCAA and all things that make ‘March Madness’ the most exciting month of sports and all the traditions and pageantry fans love,” O’Brein said. “Just as we’ve done with EA Sports College Football, we want to take the same inclusive approach that delivers every school and athlete in an experience that truly delivers for fans of the sport.”
Whether EA can replicate the success of its college football game with a college basketball one remains to be seen. Nonetheless, fans have much to be excited about, though the game is still years away with the company shooting to release the game for the 2028-29 college basketball season.
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