EA held its latest quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, and with it came questions from investors. One of those questions centered around the recent announcement of the return of College Basketball video games at EA.
While he didn’t go into specifics, EA CEO Andrew Wilson did give a somewhat lengthy response about how the company feels about the sport. After the successful return of College Football in 2024, Wilson believes that momentum is on their side to do the sport right with a new game.
“We can’t say too much about it yet, but if I think about the opportunity, going back to where we are on College Football, college sport has one of the most vibrant fanbase in the world,” Wilson said. “And that trickles over to basketball certainly. We’re seeing momentum of fandom in college basketball also continue to grow. Fans, athletes, universities pour their passion into these sports. And it is that passion that makes it special, that makes the games different.”
Wilson added that with the passion of college sports comes high expectations from fans that a game be an authentic representation of the sport with all of the bells and whistles. He also said that would mean “capturing the action on the field or the court, representing the energy, pageantry, the traditions, and celebrating the unique sights and sounds and stories of every school and rivalry.”
“We feel like we deliver that incredibly well with College Football,” he said. “We’d love to do the same for basketball. All 350 programs, men’s and women’s teams, the iconic traditions and rivalries, and of course, March Madness.
“So for us, college sports broadly is an exciting opportunity. We feel like we’ve done a really strong job, and remain committed to doing that in the context of college football. We believe that with what we’ve done with the teams, the technology, and our commitment around College Football, we’d have a great ability to do the same for college basketball, and as we look to try and activate against that opportunity, we’ll be able to share more.”
EA Sports College Basketball is expected to release in time for the 2028-29 season. EA’s proposal to the College Licensing Company (CLC) was recommended for acceptance to the schools and conferences, and would include 730 teams when you count both Men’s and Women’s programs.
Insider Gaming was the first to report EA’s—along with 2K Sports’—interest in bringing back College Basketball games back in December.
What do you think of Wilson’s comments on a return of EA Sports College Basketball games? Let us know down below, and take the discussion further in the official Insider Gaming forums.
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Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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