Madden has never reached the hysteria of the classic NCAA football games, The Big Ten completely dominated by your own two thumbs. The game has been a beloved and sacred escape from reality since its first disc, “Bill Walsh College Football.” Since then, the series was cancelled after its July 9th, 2013 release, “NCAA College Football 14.” The game debuted on the Playstation 3, and there’s still a huge fan base rallying together to play on the ancient console, first put into development around two decades ago. I understand the revisiting of old beloved games, I still have a PS3 waiting for my return to “Modern Warfare 2” or “Infamous 2”, 2 of my favorites.

The nostalgic college football series was cancelled because they didn’t use players’ names, while still using their image, number, and likeness. This came to be the downfall of the series. EA Sports, the creators of the franchise, weren’t allowed to use the college students’ names because of college policies. The former players, after years of being in a game making no pay, sued EA for around $20 million. They were compensated and EA was told not to use the title “NCAA” as a punishment. The company then avoided the development of their next game. Suddenly, they announced its return on Twitter. They said that they won’t include player likeness until approved by the federal court or Congress. Either way, the game will be delivered explosively for its longtime fans.

The colleges didn’t let the students make money off of their appearance in the game because they were already receiving scholarships to play in the first place. I hope for the sake of the players and the college football players that colleges change their rules, their policies, whatever needs to happen to allow long time fans to have the same experience as they did so long ago, I can imagine the feeling of playing as myself in a new game to be so uplifting and exciting, why wouldn’t they change their policies?

There is no release date as of now, but I hope and assume EA’s College Football game will finally release in the next couple of years. It’d be smart to put it out quickly, during quarantine, where there has been an uprising of gamers. The gaming community is much more diverse than it was when I was on my PlayStation 3. There are so many more games and consoles out now opposed to the PlayStation 3 era, and so many more people playing because they find a social experience without having to leave the bedroom. I really hope to play this game after researching it.