R.I.P. EA Sports College Football

As it turns out, “NCAA Football 14” is going to be something of a collector’s item.

EA Sports announced today that it will not make a college football game in 2014, due in large part to the lawsuits still swirling around concerning compensation for former players whose likenesses were used in previous games. Though a game would still have been possible even after the NCAA withdrew from lending its name to the series, once major conferences and individual schools started getting antsy about being involved, this result was probably inevitable.

The “NCAA Football” series never made the cultural impact that its sibling “Madden” did, but it was a reliable seller for EA on a yearly basis. It had made strides over the past few seasons in differentiating itself from the pro game, yet it never seemed to really settle in on a reliable formula for recruiting or recreating the uniquely college atmosphere, tinkering constantly in those areas.

Since this year’s game was for current gen systems only, it’s now a fair to wonder if we’ll ever see a college sports game on PS4 or Xbox One. Certainly, it won’t happen until the Ed O’Bannon case and the others that have spawned in its wake are resolved, and that doesn’t appear to be something that will happen in the near future.

It sucks when video games get caught up in real life drama, and this is definitely one of those times. R.I.P. “NCAA Football.” At least for some of us, you will be missed.