{"id":135058,"date":"2025-09-05T16:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T16:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/135058\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T16:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T16:41:09","slug":"ea-drops-out-2k-teases-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/135058\/","title":{"rendered":"EA Drops Out, 2K Teases Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tElectronic Arts<\/a>\u2019 plans for a full-fledged college basketball<\/a> video game have been shelved, the company has reportedly told schools, in part because rival publisher 2K Sports is building its own CBB offering, though it remains unclear whether that product would be built into 2K\u2019s NBA game or released as a standalone title.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing the success of EA\u2019s 2024 return to college football, the company teased a corresponding basketball series this June. 2K announced its own ambitions \u201cto bring athletes and schools to life\u201d later that same day. There hasn\u2019t been an official college hoops game released since 2008, though recent changes to NIL and revenue-sharing regulations re-opened the door.\u00a0College Football 25\u00a0was the\u00a0best-selling<\/a>\u00a0sports video game of all-time.<\/p>\n

\n\tEA had reportedly committed to including up to 730 men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams in the game as well as NCAA IP such as March Madness. According to\u00a0The Athletic, EA was targeting a 2028 launch for a game that could have competed with NBA 2K for basketball gamers\u2019 interest. However, in a memo first reported on by\u00a0Extra Points, the company told programs it was unwinding development \u201cgiven there are some schools choosing to accept the 2K Sports proposal for inclusion in NBA 2K.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUCLA confirmed its participation in 2K\u2019s project in August for both its men\u2019s and women\u2019s programs. On Thursday, 2K released a statement saying, \u201cwe\u2019re working on a college basketball experience that will feature more than 100 programs. \u2026 We\u2019ve got big plans for 2027 and beyond, and even a few surprises coming in early 2026.\u201d It\u2019s possible that the company could include college teams and players within its NBA 2K game\u2014which already\u00a0features WNBA players<\/a>\u2014before releasing a fuller college option either as an add-on to the existing game or a standalone purchase.\u00a0Players would likely be compensated for contributing their name, image, and likeness to the game. Students appearing in this College Football 26 each received $1,500. <\/p>\n

\n\tExtra Points\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0in July that 2K\u2019s original proposal to the\u00a0College Licensing<\/a> Company\u2014which manages branding deals for most schools\u2014centered around a limited number of teams appearing in a tournament format as a paid add-on within NBA 2K, alongside the possibility of a standalone game as early as 2030.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve been building NBA 2K into more than a game for decades, representing all that is basketball on and off the court\u2026 and we intend to do the same for the college experience,\u201d a 2K spokesperson said last month. 2K Games is a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMLB The Show 25, published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, took a more conservative approach to integrating college IP this year, adding eight schools that players can send their avatars to, including LSU, Texas and UCLA. A representative for EA Sports did not respond to a request for comment on the current state of their plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Electronic Arts\u2019 plans for a full-fledged college basketball video game have been shelved, the company has reportedly told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[4044,20440,399,56799,398,396,397,99,49208,16154],"class_list":["post-135058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-college-basketball","tag-electronic-arts","tag-football","tag-licensing","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports","tag-take-two-interactive","tag-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}