It’s been a few years since EA first announced the revival of its college football game, EA Sports College Football 25. Since the initial reveal, there hasn’t been much information about the game’s progress, but EA has finally released a trailer confirming a release window and promising more details in the near future.
The video addresses the skepticism surrounding the game’s existence, proudly declaring, “Yes, the game is real,” while providing glimpses of behind-the-scenes development footage. The trailer doesn’t reveal much else but concludes with a promise of a full reveal in May and a summer launch window.
EA Sports College Football 25 is in development at EA Orlando (formerly known as Tiburon), the same team behind the Madden games. This will mark EA’s return to college football gaming since the discontinuation of its NCAA Football series, with the last entry released in 2013. The series was put on hold due to a 2014 federal lawsuit that deemed the NCAA’s rule prohibiting college athletes from receiving compensation for their in-game likenesses as unlawful.
Following the implementation of Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) rules in college sports, players are now able to be paid for their appearances in advertisements or products, which includes video games. EA Sports reached an agreement with OneTeam Partners to facilitate deals with players to feature their NIL in the upcoming game. However, this faced opposition from the school/player licensing agency The Brandr Group last summer, resulting in a lawsuit to prevent EA from making such agreements with OneTeam Partners. The parties eventually reached a settlement in November, and the lawsuit was dropped (via College Football HQ).
The target platforms for EA Sports College Football 25 have yet to be disclosed, but hopefully, this information will be revealed in the larger update expected in May.