EA College Football, 2024 (PS5/XSX)

[Christian Lowe]

How much do they expect them to pay every athlete? This is ridiculous.

No clue. Madden generates $600 million per year for EA. This game will be lucky to hit 300 million based on that number, considering experts project this game to make 30-40% of Madden’s revenue.

 

[K-town Vol Fan]

People like this and @K-town Vol Fan are the reason we’ll see one release of this and probably never again.

This game won’t make anywhere near a Billion dollars. Madden doesn’t even do that. Only games like GTA generate that kind of revenue.

It is impossible to pay 12,000 players a million dollars like these idiots think is possible. It isn’t.

It depends on how they implement the micro transactions. If they can find a way to make people say "screw it, it's just $10" a few times a year they'll be making money hand over fist. Apex Legends has made over 1 Billion and honestly sucks.

1.62 billion from Ultimate Team and you have to believe the majority is coming from Madden.

Electronic Arts Pockets $1.6B from Ultimate Team

Electronic Arts generated $1.62 billion in revenue from its Ultimate Team offerings in FY2021.

frontofficesports.com

If I was a player I would probably gladly take the $600 if I truly needed it, but it's pennies on the dollar.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

People like this and @K-town Vol Fan are the reason we’ll see one release of this and probably never again.

This game won’t make anywhere near a Billion dollars. Madden doesn’t even do that. Only games like GTA generate that kind of revenue.

It is impossible to pay 12,000 players a million dollars like these idiots think is possible. It isn’t.

Florio is such a bitch

 

[K-town Vol Fan]

No clue. Madden generates $600 million per year for EA. This game will be lucky to hit 300 million based on that number, considering experts project this game to make 30-40% of Madden’s revenue.

I don't buy that either. How many people have not bought Madden in years but will buy CFB no matter what just because it's CFB. It wouldn't surprise me if CFB overtakes Madden as the cash cow. Madden has been awful for more than a decade.

 

[Christian Lowe]

It depends on how they implement the micro transactions. If they can find a way to make people say "screw it, it's just $10" a few times a year they'll be making money hand over fist. Apex Legends has made over 1 Billion and honestly sucks.

1.62 billion from Ultimate Team and you have to believe the majority is coming from Madden.

Electronic Arts Pockets $1.6B from Ultimate Team

Electronic Arts generated $1.62 billion in revenue from its Ultimate Team offerings in FY2021.

frontofficesports.com

If I was a player I would probably gladly take the $600 if I truly needed it, but it's pennies on the dollar.

You know 70-80% of that is FIFA right?

How much money does EA Sports make from FIFA & Ultimate Team? | Goal.com US

FIFA is the biggest football game on the planet and is one of the most popular video games of any genre on all consoles as well as on PC.

www.goal.com

“In its annual report, EA confirmed the figures and stated that the majority of Ultimate Team revenue comes from FIFA”

 

[Christian Lowe]

I don't buy that either. How many people have not bought Madden in years but will buy CFB no matter what just because it's CFB. It wouldn't surprise me if CFB overtakes Madden as the cash cow. Madden has been awful for more than a decade.

The college game isn’t nearly as popular as the NFL, and you thinking it’s possible for NCAA to outsell Madden has no chance of ever happening.

 

[K-town Vol Fan]

You know 70-80% of that is FIFA right?

How much money does EA Sports make from FIFA & Ultimate Team? | Goal.com US

FIFA is the biggest football game on the planet and is one of the most popular video games of any genre on all consoles as well as on PC.

www.goal.com

“In its annual report, EA confirmed the figures and stated that the majority of Ultimate Team revenue comes from FIFA”

Missed that. I guess it makes sense considering how popular soccer is everywhere else but here...

 

[Christian Lowe]

Missed that. I guess it makes sense considering how popular soccer is everywhere else but here...

NCAA 14 sold 1.5 million copies.

Even if it were to exceed all projections, Madden’s best selling year was 8 million copies.

That’d mean NCAA would sell 2.5-3 million copies at $70 each.

Giving life changing money to 12,000 players for that is just infeasible. They’d cancel the game before they’d fool with that. Which I’m sure is exactly what will happen if this continues. There’s just not the money in this that you think there is.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

I don't buy that either. How many people have not bought Madden in years but will buy CFB no matter what just because it's CFB. It wouldn't surprise me if CFB overtakes Madden as the cash cow. Madden has been awful for more than a decade.

This years Super Bowl was the most watched Television program in the history of television. I think Madden will still outsell College Football.

 

[K-town Vol Fan]

NCAA 14 sold 1.5 million copies.

Even if it were to exceed all projections, Madden’s best selling year was 8 million copies.

That’d mean NCAA would sell 2.5-3 million copies at $70 each.

Giving life changing money to 12,000 players for that is just infeasible. They’d cancel the game before they’d fool with that. Which I’m sure is exactly what will happen if this continues. There’s just not the money in this that you think there is.

I'm not saying they should give life-changing money. Maybe 2-3k. But 600 is laughable. But they know the average college student will gladly take it. It's just EA being EA.

 

[Hoosier_Vol]

Could careless if real coaches are in the game or not because I'm gonna be the new HC at Tennessee lol. Cool that the game will feature NIL and the portal. $600 per player is WAY more than a fair deal.

 

[YankeeVol]

I would play the game just as much if there were no players NIL involved. I played it without them for a decade. I honestly will be paying no attention to which players opt in or don’t.

Exactly

 

[Creeker]

Looks like over 5000 players opted-in during the first 12 hours of it being open for them to do so. Matt Brown also wrote a good piece on NIL deal of the video game in his newsletter.

 

[Christian Lowe]

Looks like over 5000 players opted-in during the first 12 hours of it being open for them to do so. Matt Brown also wrote a good piece on NIL deal of the video game in his newsletter.

Someone should set up a way to see which Tennessee players have opted in. Our fan base can track private jets, surely someone can do that lol

 

[Blake25p]

People like this and @K-town Vol Fan are the reason we’ll see one release of this and probably never again.

This game won’t make anywhere near a Billion dollars. Madden doesn’t even do that. Only games like GTA generate that kind of revenue.

It is impossible to pay 12,000 players a million dollars like these idiots think is possible. It isn’t.

Then don’t opt into the game it’s that simple, the game will be released regardless and people will buy. I’m willing to bet 90% of college athletes would opt in for free.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

Then don’t opt into the game it’s that simple, the game will be released regardless and people will buy. I’m willing to bet 90% of college athletes would opt in for free.

Exactly. If you’re going to hold out bc you think you should get more bc you’re a big time future high draft pick Quarterback you’re most likely getting paid already. I would think that deciding to opt out would be a bad move for your personal brand if you are already receiving a large NIL package. Can you imagine if Carson Beck opted out of the game bc $600 wasn’t enough, while at the same time he’s driving around Athens in his $300k Ferrari or Lambo? That’s a terrible look. Same thing if Nico opted out and he has the rumored $8 million deal.

 

[LouderVol]

The college game isn’t nearly as popular as the NFL, and you thinking it’s possible for NCAA to outsell Madden has no chance of ever happening.

I could see it happening for this release. lots of waiting and pent up demand. Madden has come out every year like clockwork. its been more than a decade for college football. no way it does it every year or probably any other year beyond this first one.

especially if they do make actual improvement/differences from Madden.

 

[Hoosier_Vol]

 

[TrumpedUpVol]

I'm not saying they should give life-changing money. Maybe 2-3k. But 600 is laughable. But they know the average college student will gladly take it. It's just EA being EA.

I agree with @Christian Lowe on all fronts. I get what you're saying because getting paid $600 to be in a video game doesn't seem like a lot of money, but all these players are doing is clicking "yes" in an app and having EA Sports do the rest of the work. They aren't providing face scans (yet, we'll see what 2028 brings) or voice/motion capture, EA is just taking a .csv with name/hometown/height/weight/stats and some headshots provided by a school SID and churning through the rosters with a few tweaks here and there.

Each $600 represents one singular character out of 11,000. It'd be a terrible offer to play Lucia in GTA VI and it's low for Shedeur Sanders, but the third string nose guard at UMass and all but around 100 of those players are realistically worth a lot less than $600. I want Tennessee to win and accordingly look forward to having Nico as the gunslinger the next few seasons, but you could replace him with any other top QB and I'll be equally excited because I am a fan of the Vols and not a guy who will be out of the sport in three seasons or less. That mentality separates collegiate fandom from professional fandom, and is part of the reason why UNC Charlotte could have a team full of unidentifiable players and it wouldn't decrease interest one iota.

$3k per player would be $35MM for EA Sports to flesh out rosters in a game that isn't nearly as popular as EA FC or Madden (fewer sales = fewer microtransactions = lower revenue) yet demands significantly more initial development dollars than Madden (134 teams vs. 32). The profit margin just isn't there to go much higher en masse, which is precisely the reason we'll never see College Basketball 2026 or College Baseball 2027 since the development spend/time to do a respectable job with 362 schools greatly outweighs sales potential. Some misguided idiots will ruin all of this in a few years via collective bargaining efforts and force EA to either make future installments with random rosters (which is fine, almost everyone buying the game is doing so for the programs) or scrap it entirely.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

 

[Creeker]

And there’s an example of a full roster of 85 players that aren’t worth the $600 they are getting

 

[RDU VOL#14]

And there’s an example of a full roster of 85 players that aren’t worth the $600 they are getting

The only school that has every player opt out or the players actually have to pay their own $600 to be in the game.

 

[Creeker]

The only school that has every player opt out or the players actually have to pay their own $600 to be in the game.

Honestly bad business by EA to include the free copy. Vandy players probably would have bought the game so that’s at least 85+ copies. Now if EVERY Vandy fan buys one that’s only 11 total copies sold.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

Honestly bad business by EA to include the free copy. Vandy players probably would have bought the game so that’s at least 85+ copies. Now if EVERY Vandy fan buys one that’s only 11 total copies sold.

Haha well played.

They’re the only team on the game that will have 12 road games .

 

[K-town Vol Fan]