By Sarah E. Needleman and Laine Higgins
Electronic Arts Inc. plans to bring back college football
videogames after it stopped making them years ago amid a legal
battle over the use of student-athletes' names and images. Yet the
return comes with a twist, the company says: the new games, for
now, will feature real teams, but not specific players, in a bet
that gamers will care more about the name on the front of the
jersey than those on the back.
EA's intention to re-enter the college-sports arena comes in the
middle of a complex debate involving Congress, state legislatures
and the National Collegiate Athletic Association over how and
whether to compensate student-athletes.
Under a deal announced Tuesday with collegiate-trademark company
CLC, EA is gaining exclusive rights to make games that simulate
U.S. college football. Game development work is just getting
started, the company said, so it could take a few years before any
new title comes to market.
EA has secured the rights to team logos, uniforms and other
college game-day traditions, a company spokesman said. EA, for now,
isn't planning to include player names or likenesses in new games
due to uncertainty around rules from the NCAA, the largest
nonprofit body supervising U.S. college sports, the spokesman said.
The NCAA currently restricts third parties from using those
attributes but that could soon change as the organization has
committed to rewriting its bylaws amid pressure from high-profile
litigation and state legislation.
The announcement comes as EA is slated to release its quarterly
financial report after markets close today. Analysts expect the
company to show strong growth in its business as the pandemic
continues to fuel demand for at-home entertainment, after markets
close today.
EA previously made college-football games but the NCAA Football
franchise, which started in 1997, was squashed in 2013 after former
UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon sued the NCAA, the videogame
publisher and the collegiate licensing company over the use of his
image for commercial purposes while denying him a cut of profits.
Mr. O'Bannon later won a landmark antitrust case that challenged
the NCAA's long-held definition of amateurism as unpaid
service.
Though a settlement was reached, EA said at the time it was
canceling the series due to lingering legal acrimony. It has since
focused on its professional football series, Madden NFL, one of its
most-lucrative titles.
EA Chief Executive Andrew Wilson told The Wall Street Journal in
2019 that the company was looking to bring back college-football
games but that doing so would be challenging because of the NCAA's
rules. "We would love to build a game if there is a world where,
you know, the folks who govern these things are able to solve for
how to pay players for the use of the name and likeness and stats
and data," he said at the time. "We would jump at the opportunity,
build a game in a heartbeat."
The NCAA spent the better part of 2020 drawing up new rules that
would allow athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness
-- a major concession that came in the aftermath of California
passing a law that would allow college athletes to enter
sponsorship deals and broad bipartisan interest in reform from
Congress. At the same time, public support for paying college
athletes has steadily grown in the wake of stories like University
of Connecticut basketball player Shabazz Napier not having enough
money for food while the school generated revenue from selling his
jersey in the campus bookstore.
The NCAA hasn't signaled that its new bylaws will permit group
licensing -- where athletes pool their name, image and likeness
rights to maximize profit -- a key to EA bringing back the kind of
avatars that closely resembled top college football players and
big-name universities. Few of the state laws already passed or the
congressional bills allow for group licensing. As the NCAA's rules
are currently written, any player who appears in his team uniform
in a videogame would immediately forgo his collegiate
eligibility.
The organization initially targeted last month as a deadline to
draw up new bylaws, but that timeline was scrapped after the
Justice Department warned the NCAA that its proposals may represent
an antitrust violation. The situation was further complicated when
the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case against the NCAA that
would permit universities to give athletes unlimited financial
awards related to academics, such as paid internships or musical
instruments. Arguments in NCAA v. Alston are expected to begin
March 31.
The NCAA hasn't said when it plans to unveil its revised bylaws.
The NCAA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
EA Sports' announcement Tuesday that the revamped game will
feature randomized players is essentially a bet that the value of
its college football game is derived from the name on the front of
the jersey rather than the back. Ricky Volante, an attorney
specializing in sports and entertainment, sees relaunching the game
before NCAA regulations around name, image and likeness are settled
as "playing the longer game."
"The timing is really interesting with the federal legislation
proposals that are out there and Alston before the Supreme Court,"
said Mr. Volante, who runs the Volante Law Firm and is CEO of the
upstart Professional Collegiate League, a paid alternative to NCAA
men's basketball. EA's plan is about making money with a new title
that can be updated once it has the ability to use players' names,
he said.
"From a market standpoint, they must have the data that shows
this game will be a commercial success with or without... the right
to include specific athletes and their name, image and likenesses
legally," added Mr. Volante.
EA's plan to return to the category will expand a sports
portfolio that includes NFL, FIFA, NHL and UFC videogames. MKM
Partners analyst Eric Handler said he was surprised by the move
because the company's original college football series wasn't a big
seller. "It had lost a good amount of its popularity and sales were
declining," he said. "A lot of people would buy the game, play it
for a month or so and then sell it back to GameStop and trade it in
for the new Madden NFL game."
Analysts say EA may be able to save time and resources, though,
by borrowing features and technology from Madden NFL, its
decades-old professional football series.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com and Laine
Higgins at laine.higgins@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 02, 2021 15:55 ET (20:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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