Photo: Gregory Shamus
EA Sports' highly anticipated return to college football will come later than previously reported.
The company announced Tuesday (November 22) that its upcoming EA Sports College Football video game series will be released in the summer of 2024.
Daryl Holt, EA Sports' vice president and general manager, told ESPN that the launch of its new series brings an enormous undertaking as the game needs to be created from scratch with its predecessor, NCAA Football, concluding with its final release in 2013.
"That's the best date for us to bring the game that we think is going to meet or exceed our player expectations," Holt said while discussion the decision to push back the game until 2024. "And cover the breadth and scale of what we want in the game. We're trying to build a very immersive college football experience."
Initial reports indicated that EA Sports was targeting 2023 for the release of the new series.
Holt described previously reported release dates as conjuncture and said that the newly announced target date was not part of a delay.
Holt specified that EA Sports will include real college football players with the game, a feature made possible by the NCAA's decision to allow student-athletes to profit off of name, image and likeness deals.
The initial announcement of EA Sports' return to producing college football games was made in February 2021, when the NCAA's NIL rule change -- which was made official four months later -- was only speculated at the time.
Holt had previously confirmed that EA Sports was and would continue to monitor the NIL discussion as it evolved as the game was early in its production process as of February 2021.
EA Sports released its popular NCAA Football series from 1997 to 2014, which was previously known as College Football USA for two years prior, as well as Bill Walsh College Football during its first two years of existence.
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