Reportedly, EA Sports College Football Developers Fear Voting Could Vanish by 2030

Developers working on the EA Sports College Football franchise fear it won’t survive past the end of the decade.

Developers working on EA Sports' college football franchise fear the series won't last until the end of the decade.

This report comes from Insider Gaming's Mike Straw, who spoke with high-level sources who worked on or around the soccer complex. He noted that, although the series has been performing well, sales have gradually declined since its much-anticipated launch in 2024. While that's not inherently a bad thing (or unexpected, given the intense hype surrounding the 2024 title), the costs associated with the game are on the rise.

According to the report, in 2024, EA paid each player who appeared in the game $600, for a total of about $7 million. Those fees have tripled, with NIL (name, image, likeness) rights for college athletes now costing $1,500 per player. As a result, EA spent almost $20 million on its players with its latest game. EA also pays boatloads of cash to license bowl games, universities and more, meaning tens of millions of dollars are spent on the rights to use certain elements in the game, as opposed to raw development costs.

EA Sports College Football 27 - Dynasty screenshots and GIFs

This has caused EA to try to monetize key parts of the game, including College Football's single-player modes. This led to a backlash earlier this summer, as players felt they were forced to pay to stream single-player content effectively. EA eventually bent the knee and reversed course, but hinted that the tool would return these options and bring them back in future entries.

A source told Insider Gaming that microtransactions were slated to return in the upcoming single-player college football titles, and were feared to anger players and drive them away from a game that is trying to grow. While college football games are scheduled for the next few years, sources report fear that the franchise may be on its way out.

"We're not FC. We're not crazy. We don't make as much money as they do and everyone knows that," a source told Insider Gaming. "But it's at a point where if we don't find a way to keep players and, in turn, make more, we're going to have nothing. Forget 10 years from now, I'm afraid if we have a game by the end of the decade. It's not going to get cheaper to make games, and there's a real concern for all of us that everything the French have and some of the key products and some of the key games."

Insider Gaming noted that not all of its sources share these fears, and some believe there is a strong future with the franchise. EA Sports' college football brand is the spiritual successor to EA Sports' wildly popular NCAA football series, which flourished in the 2000s and early 2010s before legal issues surrounding NIL rights effectively killed it off. There was a 14-year gap between the last NCAA game and the first new college football series, leading to intense fan enthusiasm.

That made college football the top 25 in big dollars and the second-highest selling game of 2024 in the U.S., though it hasn't maintained that momentum year over year. College Football 26 was the 7th best-selling game in the United States in 2025, and College Football 27 is currently the 10th best-selling game this year. Of course, College Football doesn't have as much global appeal as EA's FC series, meaning it's sales are primarily in the US.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for the IGN news team. He covers all things entertainment, including games, movies and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.