As the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit started to turn against the NCAA, one of the first casualties was the EA Sports NCAA Football video game franchise. The 2014 edition was the last one before EA pulled the plug on the series in September 2013 after the NCAA had previously removed itself and its properties from the game. Given the sweeping changes to come regarding player likeness and the ways the NCAA can profit from amateur athletes, it seemed as though the game was never coming back, sad news not just for gamers but also the players themselves who loved seeing themselves in action.
In September of last year, A federal appeals court ruled against the NCAA in many aspects but did open the door back up for the possibility that games like EA Sports NCAA Football could return.
The gist came down to the idea that if the NCAA could find a way to compensate players for using their likenesses, they could reboot the very lucrative video game. The NCAA and EA have been radio silent since. Monday, a four-second video post to EA Sports NCAA Football’s Facebook page, the first update in a year and a half, seems to imply that the series has been revived.
“No news, sorry to get your hopes up.” EA Sports rep to me re: that Facebook heartbeat video. It’s about tonight’s nat’l championship game.
— Owen Good (@owengood) January 11, 2016
What a troll job, purposefully or not. What makes the news that the random video was unrelated is that EA Sports did not post anything for last year’s National Championship game, not to mention the way that the heartbeat, a literal sign of life, doesn’t make any sense as a reference to the game between Alabama and Clemson. It almost sounds as if someone either did an actual troll job here, spilled the beans on a new game too soon or just doesn’t understand what a heartbeat monitor means.
On behalf of NCAA Football video game players everywhere, that hurt, EA. That hurt.