The jury is still out on when we’ll finally see the release of College Basketball, the highly anticipated revival of EA’s dormant NCAA Basketball (formerly March Madness) series. Early reports seem to indicate that 2028 is the targeted release window. Regardless, it’s an exciting time for sports gamers. But the mere return of the College Basketball series isn’t the only thing that’s interesting about EA’s foray back into basketball.
For years, the standard for sports games has been yearly releases, for better or for worse. On one hand, sports fans — especially gamers — are sticklers for a new product coming out each year, as real-life sports are constantly going through changes. Unfortunately, many of these yearly sports titles have seemed to mostly be glorified updates, with core mechanics and gameplay only getting a few touch-ups here and there. So even if a game is technically sound, the lack of year-to-year innovations can make a franchise feel stale and/or stagnant.
But, in an interesting development, there is some evidence out there to suggest that College Basketball will be bucking the trend of yearly releases once it’s finally out.
Reports Suggest That College Basketball Isn’t Contractually Obligated To Do Yearly Releases
As part of a larger article going in-depth about the game’s development and eventual release, The Athletic’s Chris Vannini revealed that EA will not be obligated to release a new College Basketball game every year after the first one drops. In fact, EA’s 6-year agreement with the NCAA beginning in 2028 states that the company will only have to publish three games within that time span.
And in years where there isn’t a release of a new College Basketball game, the latest iteration will simply receive a patch that will make all rosters current.
This is obviously massive news, especially for consumers who might get frustrated by the idea of parting ways with more money just to keep up with the sports game market year after year. And here’s why.
Too often, we spend our hard-earned cash just to have the newest version of a product, even if that product is only marginally better (or, in some cases, worse) than the previous one. This is because only so much innovation can be done on a developer’s part within the span of one calendar year. And any innovations that are implemented are only after years of being in the oven.
I can’t believe I’m even saying this, but EA possibly releasing a new College Basketball game every two years is as pro-consumer a move I’ve seen in years from a publisher in the sports game space. And it’s worth getting excited about.
I don’t know if it’ll change anything about its competitors’ release cycles, as I’m sure publishers are raking in far too much cash to justify bucking the trend. But, I’ll take it.
