As the tumultuous world of college sports keeps spinning and we approach another landmark season of change we wanted to turn our attention to one of the biggest story’s coming up this summer. Yes, we are closing in on the return of a college football video game as EA Sports College Football 25 is set to drop after a 10 year absence, reportedly this July.
We’ve talked about the game coming back in a few different articles over the past several months and today I wanted to coalesce all of the potential issues and questions for everyone into one place. The hype is growing immensely for the return of this game, can it possibly meet expectations?
Can the Frostbite engine be overcome?
Maybe the biggest news released about College Football 25 is that it has been coded from scratch and that means the bulk of the game–especially outside the field of play–will not be a re-skinned version of EA Sports’ Madden franchise. Hooray!
However, the college video game will be using the same Frostbite engine as Madden. Boo!
EA Sports spent hundreds of millions developing their own sports game engine Ignite which debuted in late 2013. Over a decade earlier, a Swedish developer DICE created the engine Frostbite for use in the first-person shooter game Battlefield released in 2002, and eventually EA Sports bought DICE, retired Ignite, and have been using Frostbite on most of their sports game titles beginning with Madden 18 and FIFA 17.
In the sports sector, Frostbite has received atrocious reviews. The claims are that the AI-based engine was purpose built for a first-person shooter game and its strengths (world building and story telling) translate poorly to the world of sports.
Critics say Frostbite makes games overly buggy, the animation is bad for athletes, the gameplay and menu control can lag, while the lightning and graphics often feels like a step backwards from the mid-2010’s era.
I’ve noticed the little amount of information that has come out about the new game has focused heavily on the “atmosphere” of college football. While that is a smart decision and made previous generations of the game fun it makes me worry it’s overcompensating for the poor Frostbite gameplay that is expected to hit some unsuspecting consumers.
How many years until microtransactions begin and dynasty mode withers?
If you ask most gamers about their biggest worry, if it isn’t Frostbite, then it’s the steady deterioration of dynasty modes across all EA Sports titles in favor of microtransactions and other frivolous gameplay modes–a decision that has undoubtedly brought untold riches to EA but also plagued the company in recent years, in the form of poor reviews, with the process accelerating extremely since the last college football game was released.
Surely, EA Sports is greedy and lazy but they aren’t dumb.
All signs point to College Football 25 having a ton of time and energy invested into an in-depth and immersive franchise mode. I’m not worried about this for now as EA would be crazy to mess this up and phone in an area of their business with such a large bullseye on it for multiple years. It’s possible to argue this is the most important EA release in many years (perhaps ever?) and they simply cannot afford to mess up dynasty mode.
Yet, down the road of course things will change. At some point, they will introduce other modes to the game that will detract from dynasty mode. How bad will it get?
How much customization will be possible from day one?
For the average gamer this might not be atop the list of issues but for many others the ability to customize College Football 25 is a big deal. We already know custom conferences will be included in this summer’s release but beyond that little else is known.
Something like Team Builder was very popular in the past but hasn’t been confirmed (yet) in the 2024 edition. Will the 12-team playoff format be able to change? Will certain aspects to a program, like the stadium, have customization and maintenance? EA Sports has said players not opted into the game via NIL will not be allowed to be created which raises questions about how customizable player rosters will be, as well.
My personal opinion–based on the expanding licensing fees these games are garnering especially as they are dishing out upwards of $7 million directly to football players now–is that customization may be limited in these first few editions of the game and definitely for this summer’s release.
Will it be released on PC?
EA Sports is moving on with this game by leaving behind the old generation of gaming consoles. If you have a PlayStation 4 or earlier or a Xbox One X or earlier this game will not be available to you. For a gaming console, you’ll need the PlayStation 5 (released in late 2020) or the Xbox Series X or Series S (also released in late 2020) so if you need to maybe think about upgrading sooner rather than later.
Curiously, EA has not mentioned if the game will be released on PC yet either. My conspiracy theory is that they want to steer away from the wide world of customization that comes much easier from PC gameplay but along with that comes a potentially smaller overall sales figure. A lot of progress with PC’s has occurred since a college football game was released and it would be somewhat shocking to release it only on PlayStation and Xbox.
Will there be a smooth launch without many technical issues?
My personal experience with EA Sports games in recent years has been one of major frustration. In the past few years I’ve played FIFA 23, PGA Tour, F1 23, and Madden 20 as the latest titles for me in those premier EA titles. All have their individual issues with gameplay but together they’ve suffered similar problems:
1) There are typically struggles to navigate consistent bugs that can sometimes take weeks for a patch to be sent through as a fix. Since College Football 25 is being coded from the ground up this may be less of an issue, or maybe it’s a huge issue at launch.
2) The servers for EA Sports have proven to be extremely unreliable and you can imagine a major launch of this game will put major stress on their ability to deliver a smooth experience to gamers. Gone are the days of loading up your console and playing dynasty for hours offline.
3) Saving issues have been rampant and ultimately these made me walk away from EA Sports titles. Whether it’s their servers, or a broken and buggy ‘quick resume’ feature, it’s far too common to see franchise progress go unsaved and be thrown into a loop where you’re being asked to go through elaborate changes to your console and home internet that usually don’t up fixing the problem.
I can’t in good faith buy this game on its release date, however difficult that may be when July rolls around! Others can guinea pig the return and I’ll be monitoring how things proceed.
Does the future of college sports video games hinge on the success of College Football 25?
A lot is riding on College Football 25 from a variety of angles. The most recent Madden NFL 24 pivoted to a more realistic and less arcade-y gameplay that showed improvements from an decently rated game. The same can be said for EA FC 24 with some improvements, but like its other football flagship title, suffers greatly from stale gameplay and franchise mode after several weeks.
College football will have the benefit of being fresh and one would assume there will be massive first day, first week, and first month sales.
There are rumors that EA Sports (or another publisher) are interested in more college football video games for basketball, baseball, softball, and maybe lacrosse. It appears that folks are watching how the new football game goes, especially in terms of navigating NIL, and will decide if it’s worth it to expand into other sports.
Is the announcing team good enough?
We should note that the full list of announcers and commentators hasn’t been officially released but the following names have publicly come out and said they are in College Football 25:
Chris Fowler
Kirk Herbstreit
Rece Davis
Kevin Conners
Jesse Palmer
Desmond Howard
David Pollack
It’s not set in stone but with the sport’s relationship with ESPN via the College Football Playoff and the talent listed above it would seem like the game is going to be fully on the World Wide Leader of Sports visual presentation model. Obviously, the Fowler and Herbstreit duo was a no-brainer for EA Sports and the former even mentions in the above video that he’s been doing voice work for the game for over 2 years!
However, the rest of the cast seems really underwhelming, particularly the inclusion of David Pollack who doesn’t even work for ESPN anymore and has made a controversial bid to end wokeness.
How about including
some women @EASPORTS 30 years on the college football sidelines 🤷🏼♀️ https://t.co/KpGiBc8HuN— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) February 23, 2024
Is it odd that no women are involved? This feels like a massive missed opportunity if true. They can find time for the recently let go Pollack now dabbling in grifting but nothing for Holly Rowe, Beth Mowins, Laura Rutledge, Katie George, Heather Dinich, or Molly McGrath in the ESPN universe?
Who will be on the cover?
Normally, the cover for these games really isn’t that big of a deal and it’s a little overblown usually when these companies try to market the game based on the design. After a 10-year absence, the anticipation feels much different for College Football 25. Whomever the lucky person ends up being their face is going to be everywhere this summer.
With NIL sitting front and center a solo cover for any football star could be a massive money-making deal. There’s been talk of a non-athlete (like Nick Saban or Coach Prime) gracing the cover or an outgoing college athlete (the norm in previous editions) like Jayden Daniels or Caleb Williams but both decisions would feel misplaced in the current environment.
In order to get broader national coverage it might be useful to put more than one current football player on the cover. It’s never happened in the history of the game (NCAA Football 13 used outgoing Heisman winner Robert Griffin III and the long retired Barry Sanders together) and could be an interesting move.
Regional covers could also be used, but in the era of digital downloads is that necessary anymore?
At least for the microtransactions since Battlefront II debacle in 2017 EA has heavily heavily pulled back on that
Madden 24 has barely any
“For $0.99 this pack can be used for one NIL recruiting package and boosts your odds of signing a player by 30%!”
Tempting………..
Yeah I got Madden last year for the first time in about a decade and there was a significant decrease in it, even compared to the last few NCAA games they made.
Is Madden still more difficult to play than actual NFL football? That was my turnoff the last time I played
I will be buying it on release date and if it sucks, we riot
Release day open thread on the site for up-to-the-minute game feedback?
Sign me up. No spoilers please, I’m sure I won’t be able to start playing until the evening
I know its not EA Sports, but I tried playing NBA 2K24 on my son’s Switch and I was mostly lost. I couldn’t really figure out how to start a “dynasty” with a current team – only got into some mode where I was opening packs of cards to build out a team and equip players with different shoes & stuff. I hope that’s not where sports games are heading. Bought a PS5 just for NCAA 25 – I’ll be getting it on the first few days and hopefully leading the SIU-Edwardsville Cougars to multiple titles via the MAC.
I have a recommendation for anyone who wants to get a current-gen console just for NCAA 25 and doesn’t have a prior attachment to PlayStation.
Just buy an Xbox Series S.
It’s smaller, saves you a couple hundred bucks, and it’s unlikely you’d notice any real difference in performance.
Very much noted, thank you. I’d prefer PC unless I have to update it (I ran last year’s Madden fine) and since I don’t play a ton of games anymore, Xbox sounds like the way to go.
I tried out an nba 2k game recently and just couldn’t get into it. The games control like the players are all underwater. Hopefully the frostbite engine is an improvement over that
This is the first I’ve heard that it won’t be available for PS4, so pretty disappointed, as I’ve managed to keep both myself and my kids satisfied with PS4 for an impressively long time.
You were in the MyTeam mode, which is the microtransaction mode. I was gifted 2K22 when I got a PS5, then bought 2K23, and I actually enjoyed playing that mode (without paying for microtransactions, I am not stupid). However, it’s definitely true that it’s not easy to find the dynasty mode, which I believe is called MyNBA.
Thank you. I’ve since moved on to CoD (PS5) & Cities:Skylines (Switch)
Cities: Skylines on Switch….tell me more.
Great time killer when waiting in the pickup line for school – there’s a bit of lagginess sometimes, but overall, the gameplay is fairly intuitive. Granted, I’ve not played the PC version, so maybe it’s totally different. Scratches the SimCity 2000 itch I’ve had for 25 years.
Now if someone could make an analog of Age of Empires, please, do that. (Or just make the original Age of Empires available for play on PS5)
What would young Eric Murtaugh say about this statement?
Looking forward to the NBC DLC with sidequests like “Find the opposing third-string QB’s parents in the stands and spend a whole quarter interviewing them.”
Also at least once a game the cameras follow the wrong player and you miss seeing a touchdown. Instant replay is also disabled on those plays
Default camera angle is SkyCam and you have to pay $3.99 to unlock “classic” cameras
Your console will turn on without warning at 3 a.m. and display the floating head of Tom Hammond.
You cannot turn it off.
Turn it off? Seems more like a turn on situation.
Part of ND’s deal to be in the game is that you can only play as them in dynasty if you have peacock subscription
Just 1 game per season. I’ll just turn it over to the CPU to have them beat West Bowling Green State.
I remember NCAA did not have a PC option before. Made me so mad.