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The long-awaited return of EA Sports’ college football series happens this week, ushering in a new gaming era that reflects the changing landscape of college athletics and allows users to play as their favorite players.
The game, EA Sports’ first college football offering since 2013, was developed in Orlando and, for the first time, will feature the names, images and likenesses of actual players at their respective institutions.
Customers who purchased the deluxe edition or have an EA Play membership could play College Football 25 on Monday afternoon, but it will be widely released on Friday.
Andrew Barr, 17, bought the deluxe edition and then for his first try played the University of Central Florida against cross-state rival the University of South Florida. The game exceeded his expectations.
“The crowd reactions, hearing the band and the specific college cheers definitely makes the game very fun,” said Andrew, a student at Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs. “Once I heard the band drums go off and the loading screen came up, it brought up so much joy and excitement.”
Ben Noel, executive director of the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy at UCF and former chief operating officer of EA Studios in Orlando, said “pent-up demand” has fueled excitement for the release of the game this week. The academy is a partner with EA and plenty of its graduates are now company employees.
EA’s popular college football game was shelved for more than a decade after the company settled a lawsuit by former college football players seeking monetary compensation for their name, image and likeness.
The recent changes to so-called NIL laws allowed EA Sports to enter contracts with current college football players, paying them for their images and creating a more-realistic game.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun with the stuff you couldn’t do back in the day. I could put number 15 on a Florida jersey, but we couldn’t put Tebow on the back or anything like that,” Noel said, referring to former University of Football quarterback Tim Tebow.
EA Sports used UCF’s football stadium as a test site, shooting video during the Knights November game against Oklahoma State University. The Bounce House provided the “sights, sounds and thrills of game day,” the company said, and helped it create more authentic games “that allow players to experience the rich traditions” of their favorite teams.
On social media, some UCF fans noted the game included a rocket launch visible over UCF’s stadium, mirroring real life on a campus not far from Florida’s Space Coast.
JC Shepherd, who works at the Gamestop store on Colonial Drive in Orlando, said there has been hype and excitement about the game visible online and in the store.
“This is a very big deal for a lot of people that are familiar and fans of these games,” he said. “I had a guy come in today and he bought a Playstation specifically for the game.”
Shepherd said that, as a fan of video games, he loves that Orlando has now become a hub for digital media developers.
“People who are fans of the games and that want to work on stuff they love, they have an in here in Orlando,” he said. “For digital media majors or emerging media or any digital gaming-related content, they have programs where people get hired right out the gate with great salaries.”
Noel said several UCF students intern at EA Sports every year and some end up employees of the company also called EA Tiburon.
“We’ve got over 100 of our alumni there at Tiburon and so obviously there’s dozens of our alumni that are on college football and Madden football both,” Noel added.
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