College football fans around the country have been waiting years for a new video game to come out.
After the long-standing success of the series through 2013, EA Sports’ college football video game was put on the shelf after a lawsuit from former players regarding name, image, and likeness.
Still, though, the game didn’t collect dust for a handful of years. Peer into any fraternity house over the last five to ten years and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll see an Xbox 360 with a few controllers and NCAA ’14 in the disc drive.
After a decade of deliberating and waiting for rules to change, EA Sports’ college football video game is officially set to return this summer.
Considering most people reading this website likely lean toward the Tennessee side of things, we’re going to be talking about the upcoming video game in a Tennessee-centric format. Most of the same thoughts and ideas will still apply to other schools around the country.
First and foremost, Tennessee is in. The football program’s social media department posted the announcement on Thursday.
We're in the game! @easportscollege #CFB25 | #GBO 🍊 pic.twitter.com/m7vTs6SCu1
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) February 22, 2024
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While Tennessee is in, head coach Josh Heupel will not be.
In fairness, though, no coaches are. According to a report from ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, EA chose to focus on players and programs for the big re-release coming up this summer as opposed to head coaches.
Sean O’Brien, the vice president of business development at EA Sports, recently told Rittenberg that coaches aren’t banned from the game and the company is looking to potentially add a way for coaches to opt-in “beyond Year 1.”
Tennessee wide receiver Bru McCoy is the first (and only, as of this publication) Vol player to opt into the EA College Football 25 video game, making his announcement using social media on Thursday. EA Sports is offering $600 and a free copy of the game to any player that does opt-in to the video game. EA, however, says that the game will be able to be played whether players opt-in or not.
While Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel won’t be in the game, his up-tempo offense will be – theoretically, at least. In Rittenberg’s conversations with EA executives about the game, the ESPN reporter learned that team play-styles should be able to be felt in the upcoming game.
“You almost could say there’s 134 different ways to play,” the executive said to Rittenberg, pointing to the 134 unique teams that will be featured in the game at launch.
Of course, all of this also means that Tennessee’s iconic Neyland Stadium will be in the game. A rendering of Neyland Stadium was featured in EA Sports’ reveal trailer on Feb. 15, showing that the V-O-L-S letters on both sides of the southern jumbotron will also be in the game, showing the attention to detail and the push towards an up-to-date product in the game.
EA Sports will feature Tennessee’s regular home and away uniforms but is also set to feature alternate jerseys, according to Rittenberg’s reporting. Dark Mode? Smokey Grey? We’ll just have to wait and see how many of the Vols’ alternate uniforms make the cut.
It sounds like the game is going to look about as realistic, up-to-date, and as modern as the developers can make it based on real-life photographs, renderings, and markings.
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While not everyone might be interested in this final tidbit here, the gamers of the audience will be.
How’s the game going to play? As good as it will be to get a video game back in the college football world, if it doesn’t play well, it’s a waste.
EA Sports should benefit from using the same game engine as Madden but should feel different enough thanks to the announcers, graphics, and environments that are unique to the college football landscape.
While EA College Football 25 is on schedule for a summer release date, a full game reveal is set for May.
Yeah, It’s really happening! Coming this summer. Full reveal in May #CFB25 pic.twitter.com/yMMXz7OeR8
— EASPORTSCollege (@EASPORTSCollege) February 15, 2024
