Fans of digital college basketball, get excited. Electronic Arts has officially announced that it is bringing back its college basketball franchise, though it might be a while before you get to play it.
On June 30, EA Sports posted on social media a simple, short message that promised a lot: “Bring the Madness. Let’s run it back. #CBB #ItsInTheGame” The CBB likely stands for “College Basketball.” Alongside this message, EA posted a photo of a basketball with the EA Sports logo slapped on it. The post is clearly a tease for a new college basketball game developed and published by EA.
Matt Brown of Extra Points reported that the new game won’t be called “NCAA Basketball” but might instead be called EA Sports College Basketball. The NCAA will still be involved in the game as a “licensing partner.” The upcoming college basketball game is reportedly still early in development and likely won’t be out until 2028. Insider Gaming further corroborated this possible release window.
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Kotaku hasreached out to EA Sports for more information on the game.
2009's NCAA Basketball 10 was the last EA Sports-published college basketball game. Since then, fans had hoped EA (or 2K, which published a few college ball games around 2006) would bring the franchise back. In 2024, reports surfaced that both EA and 2K were internally discussing potential college basketball games.
The return of collegiate b-ball at EA is likely happening because EA Sports College Football 25 was a massive success for the publisher. That game became the best-selling sports game in history in less than a year. It was also one of the top-selling games in 2024. Even more impressive, according to Mat Piscatella, executive director and video game industry advisor at Circana, last year’s college football game has already landed in the top 50 best-selling games of all time in the United States. So yeah, you can see why EA might be interested in doing a college basketball game again.
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