College Basketball Games Are Dead? EA Discontinues NCAA Basketball Franchise

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http://kotaku.com/5468988/this-is-the-last-dance-for-ncaa-basketball

EA Sports has confirmed that it is discontinuing its NCAA Basketball franchise, which next year will leave the sport without a video game for the first time in 12 years.

NCAA Basketball was left out of Electronic Arts' list of key releases in a financial filing on Monday. Today, in a statement to Game Informer, EA Sports' David Tinson confirmed that the publisher has ceased work on the series.

"We do not have an NCAA Basketball game in development at this time, and we're currently reviewing the future of our NCAA Basketball business," Tinson said to Game Informer. "This was a difficult decision, but we remain a committed partner to the NCAA and its member institutions."

In early 2008, 2K Sports pulled out of the college basketball market, leaving just EA Sports. It is highly unlikely that anyone else will jump back in, given the poor sales history, the inevitable competition with two other NBA basketball titles, and the cost of the license.

EA Sports' NCAA Basketball/March Madness series dated back to 1998 on the original PlayStation. 2K's Sports College Hoops series spanned 2002 to 2007.
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These games must do really poorly for both EA and 2K to drop their series, so maybe somebody else can step up at some point to do a college basketball game.
 
This really sucks, not that I've got the game for a while. Maybe 2K will step in with an NCAA game. Or maybe the lawsuit has something to do with it. The one where NCAA athletes are suing for their likeness being used and not receiving compensation.
 
They can't put in real players names, so it is not really surprising. Sure there are probably saves you can download online that put in all the names (I remember getting them way back in the day for the old NCAA Football games on PS2), but most either don't know about it or don't know how to get it.
 
Honestly, this seems like a good way to save the NBA Live franchise. I know it's struggling and the gameplay (to me and many others) isn't as sharp as the 2K series, but imagine a game that allowed you to start on the streets playing, work your way through high school, college, and into the pros? it would be the ultimate career mode, and if played up, I think could win over a lot of fans. There's not a whole lot of need for separate college and pro games anyway.
 
[quote name='Ryukahn']They can't put in real players names, so it is not really surprising. Sure there are probably saves you can download online that put in all the names (I remember getting them way back in the day for the old NCAA Football games on PS2), but most either don't know about it or don't know how to get it.[/QUOTE]

There are a bunch of lawsuits around it too, claiming that even leaving out the names they are too close to the likenesses - remember the players don't get any money from the college games, which honestly sucks in my opinion.
 
[quote name='happy']There are a bunch of lawsuits around it too, claiming that even leaving out the names they are too close to the likenesses - remember the players don't get any money from the college games, which honestly sucks in my opinion.[/QUOTE]

Why should amateur athletes playing for college teams get paid for playing? If they wanna get (over)paid, they should be good enough and try to go pro.

Personally, I don't follow sports at all, but if EA dumps 90% of the garbage they make like they did this it'll be the best thing to happen to the gaming industry in a while.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Why should amateur athletes playing for college teams get paid for playing? If they wanna get (over)paid, they should be good enough and try to go pro.

Personally, I don't follow sports at all, but if EA dumps 90% of the garbage they make like they did this it'll be the best thing to happen to the gaming industry in a while.[/QUOTE]
It's not about being paid to play, but that the NCAA and third parties are allowed to use them to make tons of money off of their likenesses that they can never touch.

I'm not sure what suing EA does for them other than trying to punish EA for using the license they received from the NCAA to the fullest extent that they could since they use generic player models that are only similar in being a similar body build and skin color. They should be going after the NCAA licensing committee that controls the entire operation and try to get things changed from the top.
 
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