EA scores NCAA Football rights

Following in the footsteps of its pro cousin, college football deals exclusive rights to software giant; six-year agreement begins this year.

It was only a matter of time. Today, Redwood City-based publisher Electronic Arts announced an exclusive deal with the Collegiate Licensing Company for the exclusive rights to NCAA-themed football games. Under the agreement, EA will be the only publisher allowed to use NCAA brands in console and handheld games.

The deal, which does not cover any other NCAA-sanctioned sports, begins this year and is locked up over the next six years. The financial terms of the agreement were not made public.

"When we began our analysis of the video game landscape, it became apparent that EA Sports was best positioned from a marketing and development perspective to maximize the sales opportunities for college football," said Pat Battle, CEO of the Collegiate Licensing Company.

Over the last few months, publishers have been scrambling for sports licenses like linemen trying to recover goal-line fumbles. The loudest move came last December, when EA secured the exclusive rights to the National Football League with a five-year deal. Staying on the gridiron, EA then acquired the rights to the Arena Football League.

Take-Two Interactive, which, following today's announcement, is now effectively shut out of the licensed football gaming market, turned its eyes to America's pastime and scored third-party exclusivity rights to Major League Baseball late last January.

The National Basketball Association shunned ideas of exclusivity and renewed its licensing deals with publishers EA, Take-Two, Midway Games, Sony, and Atari.

With the next tide of consoles set to begin debuting over the next few years, it's likely these exclusive deals will last through each console's lifetime, making them particularly important to the future of sports gaming.

EA has been publishing college football titles since the mid '90s. NCAA Football 2006, the first game under the contract, is scheduled for a summer release. No platforms have yet been announced.

[What did you think of this news? Talk about it in GameSpot Sports.]

0 Comments

advertisement

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

Featured Stories

Submit News

Got tips? Send them in!

Related Game

NCAA Football 2005 Boxshot
NCAA Football 2005

Game Stats

  • Rank:
    10,659 of 59,069
    (up by 3,394)
    PS2 Rank:
    1,461 of 3,662
    Tracking:
    1,416 Track It»
    Wishlists:
    423 Wish It»
  • Users Now Playing:
    490
  • Number of Players:

    1-8 | Offline Modes: Competitive, Cooperative, Team Oriented | Online Modes: Competitive

  • Top 5 User Tags:
    1. football
    2. ncaa
    3. ea sports
    4. ncaa football
    5. ncaa football 2005
  • Everyone Rating Description

    Titles rated E (Everyone) have content that may be suitable for ages 6 and older. Titles in this category may contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language. Learn more

Full Game Details »Close
Also on

Site Blogs