EA Sports withdraws college basketball video game proposal, schools elect to work with 2K

Back at the end of June, EA Sports announced that it planned to bring back a college basketball version of its video games, which comes off the successes of the returns of their college football product in CFB25 and CFB26. However, those plan looks to be changed.

Per Matt Brown at Extra Points, EA Sports has rescinded its proposal to create the video game for college hoops. That’s with enough schools nationally, instead, choosing to license themselves with 2K.

“UPDATE: According to a memo obtained by Extra Points, EA Sports has rescinded their college basketball video game licensing proposal, as enough schools have elected to go with 2K,” Brown tweeted out on Thursday morning.

In his article updated this morning, Brown included that memo from Sean O’Brien, EA Sports’ VP of Commercial Partnerships & Licensing. Below is the statement.

“Given there are some schools choosing to accept the 2K Sports proposal for inclusion in NBA 2K, the offer to be included in a college basketball video game will unfortunately have to be rescinded,” O’Brien wrote. “Everyone at EA SPORTS is disappointed that we all couldn’t find an acceptable path forward, but we appreciate your support in trying to bring a stand-alone college basketball game with all men’s and women’s Division 1 institutions and student athletes, conferences, as well as the NCAA, in a way that fans have told us they want. We really appreciate your support.”

EA Sports made its original announcement back on June 30th, with plans for a release in a few years’ time in 2028. That’s with no game for college basketball having been produced by any company for several years. But changes in name, image, and likeness affected those stances and a return of these collegiate games.

However, by July, reports came out that 2K — also known as Take Two — planned to challenge EA Sports for the right to license this product. That came to a head last week as, per Ben Portnoy at the Sports Business Journal, several schools were reported to be doing individual deals instead, with 2K over EA Sports. Losing the exclusivity they wanted as the sole provider of the game, EA Sports was said to “potentially exit college basketball gaming altogether,” per the report, which has seemingly come to pass this morning.

With this, a key difference between the two products would be their approaches to creating the game. EA Sports was written to be looking for a “wide-ranging game incorporating every Division I men’s and women’s team,” while 2K is “narrower in focus” as theirs would currently be “built around the biggest brands in the sport”, Portnoy noted at SBJ.

It remains to be seen what a new college basketball video game would look like and, at this rate, when it could be on shelves and available to fans. However, whenever it does come, 2K looks as though they’ll be the one producing it with this apparent decision by those at EA Sports.