On Sept. 4, EA Sports signalled it was backing out of the college basketball market before it even got its shot off. In a memo sent to schools it was trying to hash out licensing deals with, EA indicated many of those schools were already signing with its rival sports publisher, 2K. This was confirmed a day later as 2K stated, “Yes, it’s true” — 2K has a college basketball game in the works, potentially due to release in 2027. (2K’s wording is a little cagey: “We’ve got big plans for 2027 and beyond.”)
In a way, it makes sense. While EA Sports has an exclusive deal with the NFL to dominate the American football sim market with its Madden series, 2K (with no exclusivity) has effectively created a monopoly on the basketball side with its NBA 2K series. EA has revived its college football games, and now 2K is about to do the same with college basketball.
Exclusive deal or not, both companies have created their own monopolies, one for football games, the other for basketball. And that sucks! Especially for consumers — if you want to play a basketball sim featuring your favorite players, you’re effectively left with one option. Ditto for football — professional or college, it’s all EA.
These monopolies have stagnated the franchises. Madden NFL 26 has been heralded as one of the decade’s best, but pardon me if I just can’t buy Franchise mode improvements as a reason to pick it up. It seems as if every year, tweaks to Franchise mode are touted as a reason to dip your toes in the latest yearly release. 2024’s EA Sports College Football 25 had a multi-year development cycle, and its fast gameplay and engrossing dynasty mode landed well with a fanbase starved for a college football game. In keeping with the Madden model, though, EA Sports College Football 26 sounds like more of the same with minor tweaks.
Yet none of these football sims have garnered the same praise as ESPN NFL 2K5, which is commonly thought of as one of the best sports sims ever made. Now, it stands as one of the last vestiges of competition in this space.
On the basketball court, 2K has just released NBA 2K26 that, uh-huh, sticks to the series’ established pattern, which is a terribly predatory one. Truly, it feels like a game of chance with each yearly release. How much will VC (Virtual Currency, used to unlock and do just about anything) get in the way of just enjoying some virtual basketball?
I picked up last year’s NBA 2K25 during a post-Christmas sale, but have struggled to really get hooked by it. Grinding out games to earn miniscule VC with a 68 OVR player just isn’t fun, and I used to sink so many hours into MyCAREER in past games, like NBA 2K13 — back before microtransactions soured the experience. Nowadays, it’s downright impossible to get your player up to a respectable rating without paying real money for VC. And best of luck if you’re also playing the loot box-infested MyTEAM mode with its reliance on random card packs.
Competition breeds creativity, but it seems like neither will be found in the most popular sports sims. The lack of creativity is due in part to sports games’ yearly release cycle stagnating these franchises in its own way. (There’s only so much to be done to improve games about sports that have been around for decades.) Microtransaction-ridden series like NBA 2K and Madden NFL essentially have the trappings of free-to-play, live-service titles, except you’re expected to purchase a new $70 game each year to remain a part of the community.
The prospect of real innovation is why the idea of EA and 2K going head-to-head in the college basketball space was so enticing. I actually was looking forward to EA’s college basketball game. I know! EA! But a new challenger lacing up on the court meant 2K would have to potentially reassess its microtransaction practices.
Of course, EA is no stranger to microtransactions; its Ultimate Team modes are riddled with them across its various series, like EA Sports FC. But microtransactions were noticeably absent in the career mode of its last basketball sim, NBA Live 19, which was actually pretty darn good. But NBA Live failed to gain much traction in a market dominated by NBA 2K. NBA Live 20 was cancelled in 2019, and the series has been dormant since.
At this point, with no competition on the horizon, it’ll be a major surprise if 2K’s college basketball sim isn’t infested by the VC that makes its NBA 2K games such a grind. Don’t be shocked when your poorly rated freshmen rides the pine, lest you spend real money on VC to get his ratings up.
EA and 2K playing one-on-one in the college basketball space would have been a W for consumers. Now, it looks like 2K has won by forfeit.
