EA Sports made many sports fans and gamers excited when they made a shocking recent announcement. They are reportedly planning to release a 2024 version of their college football video game for the first time in more than a decade. The popular series that used to have an annual release, similar to the Madden franchise, was previously shut down for financial backlash in 2013.
Many college football players across the country took major with EA Sports using their "name, image, and likeness" in the video game without being a part of the project. This includes none of the players having a contract with EA Sports and therefore unable to make any profits from it. While their actual names weren't used in the video game, everything else about them was allegedly being taken advantage of.
The players' inability to be compensated for their video game appearances was always partially due to an outdated NCAA rule. No college football player was permitted to receive any sort of compensation or profit for anything related to their athletic career until officially turning pro. After a long legal battle, this rule has finally been taken down as of 2021, allowing players to profit from their namesakes through NIL deals and other ventures.
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The rule change has made it directly possible for EA Sports to once again pursue making college football video games as long as they compensate the real players. The gaming company recently announced that they fully plan to commit $5 million to pay out all of the collegiate football players in the game. The issue is that with how many teams there are, this only works out to about $500 per player.
Many fans were disgusted with what they perceive as an insultingly low compensation for the college football athletes featured in the game that will likely profit millions of dollars. Some of them went on Twitter to blast EA Sports for their relatively cheap offer.
Here are some of the top comments:
Many fans clearly feel that the $500 offer is quite low, considering the millions of dollars in profits that the game generates. The company also reportedly plans to offer no royalties or incentives to the players at all, further fueling the fans' dissatisfaction with their efforts to make the game happen.
EA Sports suffering potential boycott from CFBPA
Not only the fans have expressed their disgust with EA Sports' insulting offer, but the players apparently feel the same way. Recent reports indicate that the CFBPA are currently organizing an official boycott of the upcoming 2024 college football video game.
They are demanding a more favorable pay structure for the players if the gaming franchise wants to use them for profit. For comparison, Madden allegedly pays NFL players somewhere in the range of $25,000 for appearing in the game.