EA: NCAA Football Might Not Be Gone Forever, But Don't Expect More Soon

EA and the NCAA have been embroiled in lawsuits for a number of years over the in-game use of college player likenesses. Those legal matters have recently been settled, and we caught up with EA's Peter Moore to inquire about the future of the NCAA franchise.

While it's premature to suggest that NCAA Football is gone forever, a number of things would have to align in order for the series to return. "We've always said that we'd monitor the situation," Moore says.

We asked if there were specific things that would signal an all-clear to pursue the franchise again. "The development teams need to understand what they can and cannot do, and then it becomes a financial thing," Moore tells us. "If it costs you more to develop and pay for the players and what have you than you believe that you can sell, that's not fair to the [development] teams. They need to have an ongoing concern."

In order to get to the point where EA is looking at costs though, Moore expects that systemic change would be necessary across the multi-billion dollar college sports industry. "I think this thing gets bigger than us and our industry before it settles itself down," he says. "We'll step back and watch this thing develop."