College Football 25 broke video game records. Can EA Sports keep everyone happy?

New York Times

27-02-2025

The biggest locker room issue Charles Huff encountered as Marshall's head coach last year wasn't leadership or buy-in. It wasn't name, image and likeness money or social media.
It was the college football video game.
Players came to his office asking why their overall rating in College Football 25 was only 72, or why they weren't in the game at all, as if he had any control over that. He said the video game's return was a good thing, but it was a new and unexpected challenge.
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'Kids in the locker room are like, 'You don't even start and you have a higher rating than me,'' said Huff, now the head coach at Southern Miss. 'It's where kids are. It was another thing that draws their attention from going out and getting better today.'
After 11 years without a new edition since NCAA 14, EA Sports' final title before lawsuits and legal uncertainties sent college sports video games to the sidelines, the launch of College Football 25 had a bigger impact than anyone predicted, including EA Sports itself. Industry tracker Circana reported it became the best-selling sports video game of all time in total dollars, surpassing NBA 2K21, though EA has not made its sales numbers public. CFB25 brought together diehard fans who had been clamoring for a new game for a decade-plus, gamers who don't follow the actual sport and active college football players.
'It outperformed all our expectations,' EA Sports senior vice president Daryl Holt said. 'It's become part of the cultural landscape of college football this year. It was exciting and fun and amazing to see. The title became the belle of the ball (within EA).'
The game's next edition, College Football 26, has been in the works for many months and will likely have another July release date. The College Football franchise had the advantage of being new and fresh last year, and it met the sky-high expectations.
But can that momentum continue in the ensuing years, or will it fall into the trap of older video game franchises that run out of ideas?
'We went into it knowing there was a lot of stuff we couldn't get into the first year,' Holt said. 'So there's a lot of meat left on the bone.'
Critics, gamers and executives agreed: CFB25 wasn't perfect, but it was a good starting point. The reviews of CFB25 were solid; Metacritic rated it an 80 (XBox) and 83 (PS5) out of 100, while video game publication IGN gave it a 7 out of 10. Both were higher than the outlets' ratings for Madden 25. Gamers appreciated that microtransactions, a common feature of newer video games in which players must pay up to unlock special features and skills, didn't take over the game.
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'They got the overall fun factor right,' said Kofie Yeboah, a video game content creator and former engagement manager at Secret Base. 'They got the basics right. This is Dynasty mode. This is Road to Glory. I can definitely see things being expanded upon.'
James Bordeaux, a full-time CFB25 YouTuber who has more than 454,000 subscribers, concurred. Bordeaux, whose videos take viewers on hours-long quests within the game, was enlisted by EA to show off the first glimpses of gameplay last summer while playing with Michigan running back Donovan Edwards.
'I would say it was great as a foundation for the series,' he said. 'There are parts that don't feel 100 percent polished, but it makes me excited about the future of the series, especially with how much EA has listened to the community.'
That community's most frequent complaints included pass protection issues and the timing/recovery of fumbles during gameplay, a shortage of off-field details in Dynasty mode, limits on what can be customized in the TeamBuilder mode and a lack of playbook and quarter-length options in online play.
EA Sports released several game patch updates after the launch, fixing glitches and updating playbooks, jerseys and stadiums. That technology wasn't available the last time the college football game was around. Game developers know glitches get more traction on social media than seamless operation, and they monitor issues that come up.
The X account @NoContext_EACFB grew to more than 25,000 followers by becoming a popular landing spot for those game glitches, plus screenshots of funny recruit names (like D.J. Khaled or Diego Manziel). The person who runs the account — a man named Lance who asked that his last name not be used — said it was all out of love for the game.
pic.twitter.com/osxNJSoMmC
— No Context EACFB (@NoContext_EACFB) February 11, 2025
'There's going to be glitches like that, but it's just for a laugh, not meant to go after them or anything,' Lance said. 'I was hoping the game wasn't a Madden copy-and-paste, and it definitely isn't. I loved it.'
That was the most positive thing someone could say about CFB25, according to Holt: It felt different than Madden. Some gamers were worried CFB25 would simply be a reskin of the NFL title's game engine, but the talent discrepancy between on-screen players was greater in CFB than Madden, as it is in real life.
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The motto within EA Sports during the game's production was that every team in college football was someone's favorite team, and each was treated with care and attention to detail. Every school saw the impact. Schools like Alabama and Miami were among the most popular for online play, but Football Bowl Subdivision newcomers Sam Houston and Kennesaw State were popular Dynasty Mode picks for players looking to start at the bottom of college football's top level and work their way up.
Sam Houston associate VP for branding & licensing Russell Martinez recounted a vendor who graduated from Texas but picked Sam Houston as his Dynasty team.
'The game put us out there in fans' minds,' Martinez said. 'People who had no connection to the university were building championships. That was pretty cool.'
Even schools not in the game made their way in through the TeamBuilder program, which allows users to create teams. The Football Championship Subdivision's Southland Conference uploaded its own teams — jerseys and logos with generic players — shortly after launch. Southland associate commissioner James Hill said it took him 24 hours to put it all together, and the teams were downloaded more than 20,000 times.
'It was a massive hit,' he said.
IN THE GAME 🏈🎮
We know you needed some Southland Football in College Football 25… so we created all 10 teams.
For PS5 users, look at the user name hillgators32 and download your favorite team!#GasTankLeague pic.twitter.com/v52ILNog06
— Southland Conference (@SouthlandSports) July 19, 2024
FCS teams weren't formally available in the final editions of the NCAA franchise. Will they return down the road? Hill hasn't heard anything from EA Sports about that, so it appears unlikely. But what else could be in CFB26?
Some of the most common requests from gamers are game modes and features that were available in older versions or other sports games: an expanded Road to Glory mode with more time spent as a high school player; Mascot Mode, in which every player on the field is replaced with a plush mascot; the ability to play online dynasties across different gaming consoles; access to great teams from throughout college football history.
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CFB25 principal game designer Ben Haumiller told The Athletic last year that there simply wasn't enough time to fit all of the game's previous elements in as they rebuilt the franchise from scratch. EA Sports originally planned to release the game in 2023 before pushing it back a year, as creating stadiums and players in the game took up more time than expected. Now that they no longer need to rebuild all of that, the hope and plan has always been to add more.
Holt wouldn't reveal CFB26 specifics in an interview last month but said EA Sports is aware of what game players have asked for.
'We've got a lot of things still to come,' Holt said. 'We release a game, we understand what's important to players and what they play and what they would like changed, improved or added. This is a game for fans built by college fans ourselves, and we want it to be that type of relationship to understand what's important to them.'
Holt also wouldn't disclose whether a PC or mobile game was in the future, responding to another common question from fans last year. The CFB25 release was only available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, the newest gaming consoles on the market. Madden 25, meanwhile, was available on older consoles and PCs. Industry sources indicated CFB25 wasn't made for PC in part because the game's audience is more North America-based than other sports games; PC access is more critical for a global audience. Putting the game on PC also may expose the game to an expanded network of player and roster modifications, which could violate the NIL agreements reached to include real players in the video game.
'Our view as developers is that every platform is an opportunity,' Holt said. 'We started with PS5 and XBox and continue that, but we'll look at other opportunities, other platforms, what we can do differently? That's always something we talk about.'
A similar expansion calculus goes into the odds of a new college basketball video game. 2K Sports and EA Sports discontinued their versions in 2008 and 2009, respectively, due to audience and sales. Holt wouldn't rule it out down the road, but only if the audience is there.
'There was a clear need, want, desire from our community and the faithful were there (for college football),' Holt said. 'As developers, we try to figure out how we can get creative on reaching other aspects of sports, whether that be a smaller sport or one that doesn't have a game. But right now, my focus has been on American football. We'll keep looking for those things, but as a developer and working in sports, you're always tapping your head going, what else could be possible?'
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One limiting factor for any expanded ambitions for CFB26 or future games is the money paid to active college players for the use of their name, image and likeness. More than 11,000 FBS players opted in last year, each receiving $600 and a copy of the game for their NIL participation in CFB25, for a total cost to EA of more than $6 million, though a number of athletes received more for advertising ambassador roles promoting the game. It was the largest group NIL deal in history, and for most backup players, it was their only NIL deal.
There was almost no pushback from players the first time around. The only high-profile player who made waves by not immediately opting in was Texas quarterback Arch Manning, who announced his participation in the game less than two weeks before launch.
However, a new organization is looking to negotiate higher payments for players in the future. An NIL group called Pathway Sports & Entertainment announced last week that it had begun to sign FBS players for their NIL video game rights. The company's leaders have experience working in the NFL Players Association and the college NIL market.
According to Pathway, more than 600 football players have already signed on, from schools like Alabama, Georgia and Oregon, and the group's goal is to get every scholarship FBS player. Pathway is paying players $1,500 up front for their rights, with the end goal of negotiating a licensing deal far more valuable to players than $600, potentially including royalties for each game sold, which schools already receive in exchange for the use of their brand and logos. Last year, players signed directly with EA Sports, which worked with group licensing platform OneTeam Partners. The initial NIL deals last the length of players' college careers, with an opt out period each December.
EA Sports did not respond to a request for comment on Pathway's plans, but the recent developments are not expected to impact College Football 26. Pathway's control of the players' video game NIL rights is non-exclusive for the first year of the agreements, and the December opt-out period has passed for players who signed on for CFB25. In an interview that took place before Pathway's announcement, Holt said nothing new or different was expected on that player payment front this year.
Still, Pathway believes its vision would benefit everyone once they've signed enough players, and its deals do become exclusive in 2026. EA Sports could deal with a single entity for negotiations (like it does with the NFLPA for Madden). The deals being signed with Pathway include the right of first refusal for players' NFL video game NIL rights, a detail about which the NFLPA has since raised concerns. Could Pathway's framework allow gamers to export college football draft classes to Madden, a common feature of video games from the pre-NIL days? People involved said it's too early to say.
'We want to maximize rights for the players, and we look forward to educating athletes about their value,' Pathway president Casey Schwab told The Athletic.
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It's been an eventful eight months for Electronic Arts. CFB25 was a hit, and the company stock hit an all-time high in November. That stock dropped dramatically on Jan. 23, falling nearly 24 points in a single day due to sales numbers for the company's 'FC' soccer game and Dragon Age game that came in below expectations. The stock has recovered more than half of that drop in the past three weeks.
In the seven months since its release, the video game brought college football back into a corner of pop culture it had abandoned. USF quarterback Byrum Brown said before the season he got several messages from fans thanking him after winning the Heisman Trophy with him in the game. While Marshall players debated their ratings, it didn't stop them from winning the Sun Belt.
But for EA Sports, it only gets harder from here. Any game is better than no game, but now that the bar has been raised, gamers expect more for College Football 26.
'We talked about this game earlier than we have ever talked about making a game at EA Sports,' Holt said of CFB25. 'That was a little bit of jumping out of a plane without a parachute, but all we saw was true engagement from fans on what was important to them. …
'What they should know is you have a very passionate college football development team that has not lost any of that energy to make a great experience, and that will carry the game to further heights this summer.'
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Images via EA Sports)