EA Sports letting FBS players opt in to 2024 video game - ESPN

When the first version of a college football video game in years comes out next summer, the virtual likenesses of actual players will be in the game.

An EA Sports representative confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday that it has contracted with OneTeam Partners to «facilitate collegiate athletes' names and likenesses» into the game, solving one of the major questions about college football's return to the video game space.

The partnership will include the chance for all eligible FBS players to opt in to have their likenesses in EA Sports College Football, the representative said. Those players will receive compensation for being placed in the game.

Details — such as how much an athlete will receive and the structure of payments — are still being finalized, but the EA Sports representative said the goal is to be «as inclusive and equitable as possible.» On the OneTeam website, the company stated that if the influence of individual sales couldn't be figured out — including for video game licensing — then «revenue will be divided equally among the athletes included in each licensing program.»

If a player does not want to be in the game, EA Sports would create a generic avatar and player in that athlete's place.

For participating players, it is possible a face scan of their likenesses could be in the game, the representative said, though not every athlete will receive a face scan because there are thousands of FBS players across the country. The representative said more than 120 FBS schools have committed to being in the game — along with all 10 FBS conferences and the College Football Playoff — with the goal remaining to have every FBS school in the game.

When EA Sports announced the return of its college football series in 2021,