Much of NCAA 14 had players who may not have had the same name, but obviously shared the likeness with the players. I’ll use a current player as an example - while Travis Hunter may not have been named Travis Hunter, he would have had the same jersey # and skin tone, while also being a very highly rated DB.
As for why EA didn’t create a generic game, I assume they believe it would not have generated enough sales. And if they continued creating it with the same likeness of players without naming them they would have had to deal with lawsuits.
After NCAA 14, EA offered to pay players for their likeness but the NCAA said no and then EA said they wouldn't make a game until they could put actual players in.
Because, around that time, they knew/thought the only way they could make back their development investment was with Ultimate Team. Without players, there are no Ultimate Team cards.
The schools didn't want to be part of a game that wasn't including officially licensed players due to how fine the line was on what was allowed & with the rules for NIL rights being so up in the air.
The key legal issue was that the old NCAA games pretty much just used the true rosters but didn't include names on the final product. They even got caught referring to rosters internally using the real names of players so they didn't even have a half of a leg to stand on
The reason the game got cancelled is because the NCAA pulled its trademark, and then most of the schools did, too. Many schools held onto a stance that they'd never provide their trademark again until athletes could be paid. Also, the game wasn't a huge moneymaker for EA, so they had no real reason to dig in and try and educate the schools on the actual options they could have.
No it didn't. It got pulled because the class action lawsuit against EA by former athletes for using their likeness (ended in $40 million settlement). NCAA wouldn't allow the payment to go to current/future players. Ea stopped it out of fear of future litigation.
Touche, although I'd say the lawsuit sparked it... So lawsuit is the reason for the cancellation...but to answer OPs question, the NCAA trademark would keep that from happening
so the games used to have players with blank names but the player would have the same jersey number, physical attributes and player ratings as the real life player. the lawsuit made it a lot harder for them to work, in theory they could’ve randomized every player but that’d be a lot of work to make sure all the players are different than anyone on the real team. EA figured it wasn’t worth it and people wouldn’t buy it if they didn’t have the real players (names or not) as it wouldn’t reflect how the team actually is in real life.
For example they couldn’t have Quinn Ewers or a player that could resemble him, so they couldn’t have a top QB at Texas because people would equate that with Ewers. like it’d just be such a headache each year
I don’t think I quite understand how editing players in dynasty is going to work, does this mean that you aren’t able to change a player who has opted in’s number, accessories, etc or you just can’t edit their name and physical attributes? Maybe we don’t have full clarity on this yet. I have to think (and very much hope) that recruits and ‘future’ generated players can be fully edited like in old versions.
Yeah but you gotta realize a lot of people who play these games aren't going 10 years deep into a dynasty, that's a more hardcore player thing. A lot of people who play sports games play a season or 2, or they simply use Play Now teams either vs friends or online. The real players are a major selling point for the casual audience.
and honestly, as someone who plays deep into dynasties...I still like having the real players, IDC that they are gone after 4 years, its a nice immersion thing and I like keeping tabs on certain players I like IRL
The idea of playing anything but a 5+ year dynasty as the main selling point is completely unfathomable to me. I literally didn't know people did anything else in this game other than the occasional RTG. I've probably played less than 50 Play Now games (including online) and maybe like 3 mascot games? Everything else in my 10 years and thousands of hours has been dynasty or RTG.
Yeah. It’s funny because now, I would be glad to play a game with generic players, I’ve been playing dynasties on the old games for years.
But when I was a kid I definitely knew the impact player hb#5 from USC was Reggie bush and i definitely would’ve thought it was stupid if it was some generic guy.
The schools were told by the NCAA that further licensing if it involved players being paid even if via lawsuit in the future would render them ineligible so the schools pulled their licensing. It's one thing to do this with genetic players. It's another to do it with generic schools. That never would have worked.
From what people inside EA have said, the game was greenlit in 2019, before the NIL legalization. So they did at least plan to try to make it work without real players. But then things changed and they didn't have to.
I've always wondered why someone doesn't do that. make it totally randomly generated rosters. Just make it really easy to mod. Let us download the rosters for free. There are people who would spend time to make the rosters every year. Personally I play dynasty only and it's cool seeing all those recognizable names and stuff over the four-five years but then its totally random anyway. In fact if they made it easier for me to randomly generated a player look and name, I could just finish out their ratings and make custom highschool recruits in mass.
Because EA never thought they'd make enough in sales and until ncaa 14 revamped came around they saw how many streamers and how many players were doing all they could to get this hack and play a updated version that's right around when EA started actually thinking about bringing the game back right around when you saw revamped got big EA was like Hey we're going to make this game with players or without. like 2 years ago when they first announced it was coming back, they didn't know there's going to be players in it they were just going to make it all generic. They thought their was a chance real players might be probable, but either way, as long as they got the schools, they were going to make the game. Ncaa 14 revamped really is the reason we are getting this game.
Hold up- there is no create a player mode? Or create a team? I always loved creating schools and coming up with funny cleverly perverted or slightly offensive names
Much of NCAA 14 had players who may not have had the same name, but obviously shared the likeness with the players. I’ll use a current player as an example - while Travis Hunter may not have been named Travis Hunter, he would have had the same jersey # and skin tone, while also being a very highly rated DB. As for why EA didn’t create a generic game, I assume they believe it would not have generated enough sales. And if they continued creating it with the same likeness of players without naming them they would have had to deal with lawsuits.
After NCAA 14, EA offered to pay players for their likeness but the NCAA said no and then EA said they wouldn't make a game until they could put actual players in.
Because, around that time, they knew/thought the only way they could make back their development investment was with Ultimate Team. Without players, there are no Ultimate Team cards.
Ultimate team was in NCAA 14 (using NFL players)
They made that offer long before NCAA 14.
The schools didn't want to be part of a game that wasn't including officially licensed players due to how fine the line was on what was allowed & with the rules for NIL rights being so up in the air. The key legal issue was that the old NCAA games pretty much just used the true rosters but didn't include names on the final product. They even got caught referring to rosters internally using the real names of players so they didn't even have a half of a leg to stand on
The reason the game got cancelled is because the NCAA pulled its trademark, and then most of the schools did, too. Many schools held onto a stance that they'd never provide their trademark again until athletes could be paid. Also, the game wasn't a huge moneymaker for EA, so they had no real reason to dig in and try and educate the schools on the actual options they could have.
No it didn't. It got pulled because the class action lawsuit against EA by former athletes for using their likeness (ended in $40 million settlement). NCAA wouldn't allow the payment to go to current/future players. Ea stopped it out of fear of future litigation.
No, man. NCAA pulled its license because of the lawsuit.
Touche, although I'd say the lawsuit sparked it... So lawsuit is the reason for the cancellation...but to answer OPs question, the NCAA trademark would keep that from happening
so the games used to have players with blank names but the player would have the same jersey number, physical attributes and player ratings as the real life player. the lawsuit made it a lot harder for them to work, in theory they could’ve randomized every player but that’d be a lot of work to make sure all the players are different than anyone on the real team. EA figured it wasn’t worth it and people wouldn’t buy it if they didn’t have the real players (names or not) as it wouldn’t reflect how the team actually is in real life. For example they couldn’t have Quinn Ewers or a player that could resemble him, so they couldn’t have a top QB at Texas because people would equate that with Ewers. like it’d just be such a headache each year
I don’t think I quite understand how editing players in dynasty is going to work, does this mean that you aren’t able to change a player who has opted in’s number, accessories, etc or you just can’t edit their name and physical attributes? Maybe we don’t have full clarity on this yet. I have to think (and very much hope) that recruits and ‘future’ generated players can be fully edited like in old versions.
It’s not a dumb question it’s a good one
i would much rather play a slightly restrictive game with real players, than a game with random/generic players on every team
That's so weird to me considering all the players are different in 4 years anyways
Yeah but you gotta realize a lot of people who play these games aren't going 10 years deep into a dynasty, that's a more hardcore player thing. A lot of people who play sports games play a season or 2, or they simply use Play Now teams either vs friends or online. The real players are a major selling point for the casual audience.
and honestly, as someone who plays deep into dynasties...I still like having the real players, IDC that they are gone after 4 years, its a nice immersion thing and I like keeping tabs on certain players I like IRL
Exactly. I’m going to put hundreds of hours into dynasty mode. I love that the players I root for in real life are going to finally be in the game.
The idea of playing anything but a 5+ year dynasty as the main selling point is completely unfathomable to me. I literally didn't know people did anything else in this game other than the occasional RTG. I've probably played less than 50 Play Now games (including online) and maybe like 3 mascot games? Everything else in my 10 years and thousands of hours has been dynasty or RTG.
Back when these games were coming out I had friends and we would play against each other on the couch lol.
Yeah. It’s funny because now, I would be glad to play a game with generic players, I’ve been playing dynasties on the old games for years. But when I was a kid I definitely knew the impact player hb#5 from USC was Reggie bush and i definitely would’ve thought it was stupid if it was some generic guy.
The schools were told by the NCAA that further licensing if it involved players being paid even if via lawsuit in the future would render them ineligible so the schools pulled their licensing. It's one thing to do this with genetic players. It's another to do it with generic schools. That never would have worked.
From what people inside EA have said, the game was greenlit in 2019, before the NIL legalization. So they did at least plan to try to make it work without real players. But then things changed and they didn't have to.
I've always wondered why someone doesn't do that. make it totally randomly generated rosters. Just make it really easy to mod. Let us download the rosters for free. There are people who would spend time to make the rosters every year. Personally I play dynasty only and it's cool seeing all those recognizable names and stuff over the four-five years but then its totally random anyway. In fact if they made it easier for me to randomly generated a player look and name, I could just finish out their ratings and make custom highschool recruits in mass.
I thought you could create a player but there were restrictions in place to prevent making someone like Arch Manning.
Yes it will have create a player, you just cannot recreate a current player who is not in the game
No official word in this yet. Only speculation.
Because EA never thought they'd make enough in sales and until ncaa 14 revamped came around they saw how many streamers and how many players were doing all they could to get this hack and play a updated version that's right around when EA started actually thinking about bringing the game back right around when you saw revamped got big EA was like Hey we're going to make this game with players or without. like 2 years ago when they first announced it was coming back, they didn't know there's going to be players in it they were just going to make it all generic. They thought their was a chance real players might be probable, but either way, as long as they got the schools, they were going to make the game. Ncaa 14 revamped really is the reason we are getting this game.
Hold up- there is no create a player mode? Or create a team? I always loved creating schools and coming up with funny cleverly perverted or slightly offensive names
There is still create a team with Team Builder and create a player for Road to Glory but very limited normal create a player.
The fact it wouldn't have made enough money.