EA holds license for non-exclusive college football games for three years
Earlier this week, the NCAA announced it would no longer provide its name to EA's college sports series of games, but the publisher will continue to work with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), the entity that handles trademark licensing and marketing services for universities. A source familiar with the agreement tells Joystiq that EA's current licensing extension with the CLC is for three years starting on July 1, 2014, and is for a non-exclusive college football game.
The source says EA was not going to renew its exclusive contract with the NCAA for at least five years, as stipulated by EA's proposed $27 million lawsuit settlement from July 2012. The lawsuit alleged that EA "violated antitrust and consumer protection laws and overcharged consumers" for its football games due to its use of exclusive licenses with the NFL, NCAA and AFL.
NCAA announced this week that it will not renew its contract with EA, and that NCAA Football 14 "will be the last to include the NCAA's name and logo." EA's statement on the matter revealed plans to continue development on a next-gen college football game using licensing provided by CLC. The continued agreement with CLC enables EA to develop games using the branding of college programs across the nation as it did in the NCAA Football series, without the NCAA mark.
