The dreams of a new college basketball video game featuring every Division I men’s and women’s team have been extinguished as quickly as they were ignited.
As was first reported by Matt Brown of the Extra Points newsletter, EA Sports has rescinded its college basketball licensing offer, as it announced in a memo sent Wednesday evening to licensing directors at the campus and conference levels.
“Given there are some schools choosing to accept the 2K Sports proposal for inclusion in NBA 2K, the offer to be included in a college basketball video game will unfortunately have to be rescinded,” EA Sports Vice President of Commercial Partnerships and Licensing Sean O’Brien said in the memo, which was obtained by Extra Points. “Everyone at EA SPORTS is disappointed that we all couldn’t find an acceptable path forward, but we appreciate your support in trying to bring a stand-alone college basketball game with all men’s and women’s Division 1 institutions and student athletes, conferences as well as the NCAA, in a way that fans have told us they want. We really appreciate your support.”
The decision came in the wake of a competing bid from 2KSports, which was seeking a non-exclusive license to make a video game including a select group of college basketball programs. EA Sports teased the return of its college basketball video game series, which hasn’t released a new game since 2009, in a post on social media in June.
However, it seems EA is only interested in obtaining an exclusive license, and with schools agreeing to license with 2K, the plans for a college basketball video game have been abandoned, at least for now.
According to Brown, 2K’s bid centers around a “5v5 tournament gameplay format integrated into NBA 2K MyTeam Mode via downloadable content (DLC).” It’s unclear which programs (or how many) would be featured in 2K’s college basketball game mode.
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