Video capture of old college football video game (Owen Puello)On February 15th, 2024 EA (company that makes the “Madden” franchise games) announced that they will be coming out with a new video game “College Football 25”. The game will be a simulation of college football. Many people who play sports and video games got excited for this announcement. The community has been asking for this game for a really long time.

EA doesn’t have the right to use anyone’s image and likeness for free. What EA did to get past this obstacle is they offered almost every single college football player in the country a deal to use their image and likeness. EA offered over 12 thousand players this deal. Anyone that opts-in to the game received 600$ and a free copy of the game on release.

You would think as a football player anyone’s dream is to be in a video game and play as yourself, but not in this case.This deal that EA offered didnt make everyone opt-in. There were many players that opted-out of the game. Arch Manning, the nephew of football hall of famers Eli and Peyton Manning, decided to opt-out of the game. “Arch is focused on playing football on the field,” said Texas football reporter Anwar Richardson, who interviewed Arch. This was the main reason why he opted-out of the game.

Players of the game really don’t really feel affected about this as much as you think they would. They say it’s going to ruin the realism of the game because of the roster changes but it won’t affect the gameplay and the feeling that they will get once they play the game. There are still many players that they can enjoy playing with and lucky for them most of their favorite players like  Luther Burden III and Emeka Egbuka are opting into the game.