Ben Portnoy of Sports Business Journal breaking the sad news that even 2028 may be too soon for the series revival. <\/a>And it\u2019s because 2K \u2014 yes, the same folks in charge of the popular NBA video game series, along with PGA, NHL and WWE, plus Bioshock, Borderlands and others \u2014 wants in, too. Or all of it? Part of it? More of it than EA Sports wants to give up? That\u2019s the question of the hour.<\/p>\nIn short, EA Sports wants exclusive rights for an all-inclusive college basketball game while 2K wants only the biggest brands to participate in a narrower focus. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe approach we\u2019ve proposed is to create a game that includes all 350-plus NCAA Division I schools \u2014 both men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams included \u2014 with name, image and likeness compensation for all athletes, 32 conferences, the NCAA and all things that make \u2018March Madness\u2019 the most exciting month of sports and all the traditions and pageantry fans love,\u201d EA Sports VP\/Business Development Sean O\u2019Brien told Sports Business Journal in a statement. \u201cJust as we\u2019ve done with\u00a0EA Sports College Football, we want to take the same inclusive approach that represents every school and athlete in an experience that truly delivers for fans of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for 2K Sports, it appears they\u2019re moving forward with their own thing \u2014 potentially as an extension of the NBA 2K series rather than an expanded standalone like EA Sports would prefer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited to confirm we\u2019ve entered into non-exclusive long-term partnerships with multiple elite colleges, including UCLA with more to be announced soon, as we embark on a new college basketball project,\u201d a 2K spokesperson told SBJ. \u201cWe\u2019ve been building NBA 2K into more than a game for decades, representing all that is basketball on and off the court along with basketball culture at-large. It\u2019s a platform driving the sport and culture forward, and we intend to do the same for the college experience too. We look forward to sharing more about our plans for our college basketball project in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the NCAA, there is a real question as to whether they\u2019d be willing to agree to a limited release, instead previously \u201cnegotiating a comprehensive licensing agreement that benefitted men\u2019s and women\u2019s student-athletes from all Division I schools.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the NCAA remains open to working with a gaming partner to do that, it appears the market has chosen to go in a different direction for the time being,\u201d the NCAA told SBJ.<\/p>\n
The bad news? <\/p>\n
\u201cTalks remain active and fluid, but should EA Sports not be able to retain the exclusivity it desires, sources caution it could potentially exit the college basketball gaming altogether,\u201d Portnoy reports.<\/p>\n
That would kill our dreams of a full March Madness experience with all 350 schools competing to cut down the nets, but if you\u2019re looking for a positive, Kentucky should be safe regardless as the biggest brand in the sport. You\u2019d still get to compete as your favorite players with Pope on the bench, but it just wouldn\u2019t be the same full experience.<\/p>\n
Get it together, guys. Figure something out and let the kids (young or old) play.<\/p>\n
Join KSR Plus! With a KSR Plus membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR\u2019s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right in the heat of pre-College Football 26 hype, just days before the second-annual edition of the video…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,26863,4000,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-258068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ea-sports","11":"tag-kentucky-basketball","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-basketball","14":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115115380167264010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}