EA’s NCAA game, built primarily in Orlando, gets release date

One of Electronic Arts’ most-anticipated video games in years has an official release date.

College Football 25, which will be built mostly in Orlando, will launch on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 on July 19.

Early access options and trial versions will go live on July 16, as well.

Texas QB Quinn Ewers, Colorado two-way player Travis Hunter and Michigan RB Donovan Edwards feature prominently in the promotional material.

“Donovan, Quinn and Travis are extraordinary talents who impressed and entertained millions of college football fans on the field last season and are poised to do so again this year,” EA’s Orlando-based SVP and Group GM Daryl Holt said in a press release.

The announcement was made on EA’s website.

“Hey College Football fans, welcome to the Campus Huddle, your home for the latest news and updates straight from our development team,” the post read.

The page listed several features and incentives toward pre-ordering, a standard feature of big video game releases in recent years.

A full reveal of the game, which was discontinued 11 years ago, is expected to go live on Friday.

The release marks an historic moment in video games and in sports video games, in particular.

It is the first major release of a college sports game since the NCAA adopted so-called “name, image and likeness” rules in 2021 that govern how players can earn money while in college.

That necessitated Electronic Arts to negotiate with individual players to include them in the game.

As of March, according to EA, the company had reached out with offers of at least $600 and a copy of the game to players, with more than 11,000 NCAA players accepting the offers.