Whatever happened to NCAA Basketball, the video game franchise based on college basketball? This is a question that comes up frequently to us, ever since we started to cover the affair between Ed O’Bannon and the NCAA.
Even though there are a large number of people who would like to see NCAA football go back, including popular figures like Kirk Herbstreit and Todd Howardthere are many people who would like to see NCAA Basketball come back too. This is a topic that comes up frequently in our coverage of the topic. Every time we received news about this case, people asked us, “What about basketball?”
We hear you! College football fans have only gone 3 years without seeing a new game in this franchise, but basketball fans have gone much longer. In fact, the latest iteration of NCAA Basketball was released in 2009. It’s more than twice as long.
So what happened, why NCAA Basketball finished in 2009, and why NCAA football continue for several more years? This is an interesting question, but unfortunately at the moment we can only speculate.
In 2010, the franchise was officially discontinued. David Tinson, speaking on behalf of EA Sports as senior director of communications, told Game Informer that they are “currently looking at the future” of their NCAA Basketball franchise. We all know what came next, because it’s now 2016 and we find ourselves without a single college basketball game on the market.
What’s interesting about this decision is that he also reportedly stated that EA would remain a committed partner to the NCAA. Although this appears to have been the NCAA’s decision and not EA’s, this partnership had an unhappy ending in 2013 following the Ed O’Bannon affair, leading many to speculate that EA would likely not be involved if the NCAA returned to video games.
Obviously, the decision to cease production of NCAA Basketball was not due to the lawsuit, as EA and the NCAA maintained their partnership after the fact. So what made EA decide to cancel the franchise? It’s possible it’s a lack of sales combined with poor reviews.
Taking a look at Metacritic, you can see that critical opinion of the franchise varied from installation to installation, even receiving different scores across platforms. NCAA Basketball 09 received a 74 at its peak with the March Madness edition of the game, unsurprisingly getting a much lower 55 on the PS2.
It seems that NCAA Basketball 10 doesn’t fare much better, although both versions of the game managed to achieve a score of 75, which Metacritic considers positive. But these are just critical reviews of the game, which are not always the most important factor. Actually, a 75 is a pretty good score considering that games with lower scores have managed sequels.
So what about the sales? Unfortunately, sales data is hard to find. VG Chartz, which offers vague sales data, claims that NCAA Basketball 10 sold 300,000 copies. This old article from GameSpot claims that the game only sold 155,000 copies.
Whether it’s 155,000 or 300,000, the numbers aren’t really good. To put them into perspective, the NBA 2K the franchise was selling around 2 million copies at the same time. NBA 2K9 sold one confirmed and combined 2 million.
College sports may not necessarily be on the same level as professional sports, but they are certainly the next best thing. I’ve already talked about the money they generate. The NCAA as a whole almost exceeded one billion turnover during the 2014 financial year.
There may be big money in college sports, but if games only sold 100,000 to 300,000 copies, that might not have been enough. By comparing, NCAA football topped the NPD charts for the month of its release in 2014, which is generally a good sign.
The games he beat that month? Minecraft, The Last of Us, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, And NBA 2K13. This is no small feat, and while the NPD report does not include the number of sales of each title in a given month, it is clear that NCAA football was still doing well in 2013.
So it seems reasonable that EA Sports’ motivating factor could have been sales. Clearly, EA wanted to maintain its partnership with the NCAA, because NCAA football saw a continued output to good sales. It is entirely possible that NCAA Basketball didn’t work as well as they would have liked.
But there is also another possibility. NCAA Basketball could have been overturned following the lawsuit, originally filed in July 2009. Although this lawsuit ultimately impacted NCAA video games as a whole, it is possible that EA thought it was best to sever ties with college basketball and wait it out. until everything explodes.
It is difficult to say definitively why NCAA Basketball was put aside before NCAA Football. For now, all we can do is speculate until someone weighs in on the matter. However, from what I’ve read, it seems like it comes down to a combination of poor sales and a growing lawsuit.
Now that the trial is over and athletes finally receive their checks, maybe we’ll see him return. As for whether or not we’ll see this return in the 2017 season? The evidence indicates that this is unlikely, but we still remain hopeful. If NCAA football found itself staying put despite interest from EA and fans, it’s unlikely to be seen NCAA Basketball return next season.
If we were to see NCAA Basketball 17, we would probably know by now. Maybe we’ll see NCAA Basketball 18 next year.