NCAA Basketball 10 Message Board

Company places series under review.

"We do not have an NCAA Basketball game in development at this time, and we're currently reviewing the future of our NCAA Basketball business," said EA Sports' senior director of communications David Tinson in a recent Game Informer interview. "This was a difficult decision, but we remain a committed partner to the NCAA and its member institutions."

It's an odd move, considering EA's biggest rival, 2K Sports' NCAA College Hoops series, hasn't seen any new releases since its 2K8 installment, leaving the market wide open. Tinson confirmed that the team responsible for the series won't be laid off, but rather assimilated into the NBA Jam and NBA Live teams at EA Canada, dashing our hopes that an EA-developed Harlem Globetrotters game could come from this.

EA Sports has confirmed that it is discontinuing its NCAA Basketball franchise, which next year will leave the sport without a video game for the first time in 12 years.

NCAA Basketball was left out of Electronic Arts' list of key releases in a financial filing on Monday. Today, in a statement to Game Informer, EA Sports' David Tinson confirmed that the publisher has ceased work on the series.

"We do not have an NCAA Basketball game in development at this time, and we're currently reviewing the future of our NCAA Basketball business," Tinson said to Game Informer. "This was a difficult decision, but we remain a committed partner to the NCAA and its member institutions."

In early 2008, 2K Sports pulled out of the college basketball market, leaving just EA Sports. It is highly unlikely that anyone else will jump back in, given the poor sales history, the inevitable competition with two other NBA basketball titles, and the cost of the license.

EA Sports' NCAA Basketball/March Madness series dated back to 1998 on the original PlayStation. 2K's Sports College Hoops series spanned 2002 to 2007.

EA Sports Confirms NCAA Basketball Benching [Game Informer]

A lawsuit filed against the NCAA's licensing authority by Ed O'Bannon (pictured), the former member of UCLA's 1995 national championship team, will be allowed to go forward, but it's already had its effect on college sports simulations.

O'Bannon's suit against the Collegiate Licensing Company, whose exclusive agreement with EA Sports makes that studio the only one publishing NCAA sports games, survived a motion to dismiss on Monday and could have a gargantuan effect on how the association and its member universities and conferences use the likenesses of former players after they graduate.

'Bannon's claim began when he saw a representation of himself in a basketball video game."They literally played me on a video game," O'Bannon told Yahoo! Sports. "You could play the '95 Bruins. It didn't have my name, but it had my number, left handed, it looked like me. It was everything but the name. My friend kind of looked at me and said, ‘You know what's sad about this whole thing? You're not getting paid for it.' I was just like, ‘Wow, you're right.' It just kind of weighed on me.""

But that use of his likeness seems to be no longer an ongoing concern. EA Sports' NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball titles routinely featured historic or all-time greats rosters comprised of unnamed players who still bore heavy resemblance to a school's past stars. Not this year. They were left out of both games, probably because of O'Bannon's suit, even though EA Sports is not a party to it.

O'Bannon's suit doesn't cover the use of the likenesses who are current players and covered by the NCAA's amateurism regulations, which prohibit an athlete receiving such compensation. Conceivably, if O'Bannon were to prevail, any use of a former player in a video game would have to be compensated and that would drive up the cost of the license. It's easy to see why EA would just say screw it pre-emptively, as the majority of the game experience is delivered through playing current teams and rosters.

Former Nebraska and Arizona State quarterback Sam Keller has filed a similar suit, however, and EA is named as a defendant. The firm representing O'Bannon is attempting to link his case with Keller's. Both are class-action suits.

O'Bannon Case Could be a Game-Changer [Dan Wetzel on Yahoo! Sports]

NCAA Basketball is not listed among key sports titles due for release in Electronic Arts' coming fiscal year, fueling speculation that the poor-selling franchise has been discontinued.

In its filings today, EA notes that the list is not a complete picture of all titles to be released in the coming year. However, NCAA Basketball typically has been included, along with all other sports titles, in guidance offered in years past. The list also includes three TBA titles under the EA Sports banner, two of them EA Sports Active, one an unnamed fighting game due in early 2011. It would be unusual for NCAA Basketball to be considered not a key release if an unnamed project a year away is.

I emailed EA Sports for comment; it hadn't responded as of publication time. NCAA Basketball has long been rumored for the chopping block, with poor sales only part of the picture. The title draws nowhere near the kind of post-release support of other EA Sports retail releases.

The omission is also similar to how NHL 2K11 met a quiet, if unconfirmed, demise in December. It was left out of 2K Games' upcoming key releases, and a 2K Sports spokesman said only that the company was evaluating its portfolio of sports titles, with no plans announced for an NHL title.

Another interesting but unrelated detail from EA's filing: EA Sports MMA is listed for a fall release. Earlier rumors had the title slotted for a September 2010 drop.

Can this year's NCAA installment avoid the Sophomore slump? Check out the GameTrailers video review of EA Sports' newest College Basketball sim.

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