Can I Play NCAA Football 14 on Xbox Series X|S Consoles?
No, NCAA 14 is not natively compatible or playable on the Xbox Series X, Series S, or any Xbox One platform. Released in July 2013 exclusively for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the final game in Electronic Arts‘ NCAA Football series remains trapped on seventh-generation consoles.
Why Can‘t I Simply Play It via Backwards Compatibility?
While select Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles are playable on newer Xbox systems through emulation, NCAA Football 14 is barred from backwards compatibility.
Ongoing legal disputes center around usage of college athlete likenesses without compensation. EA Sports‘ settlement now prevents further distribution of the game.
Why Does NCAA Football 14 Remain In-Demand?
(2021 Pricecharting Data)
| Year | NCAA 14 Value |
|---|---|
| 2016 | $35 |
| 2019 | $55 |
| 2021 | $120 |
| 2022 | $215 |
For football fans and gaming collectors, this last NCAA-licensed title has rapidly appreciated into a valuable asset. With prices quintupling in just 6 years, nostalgia and scarcity drive burning demand.
Review aggregator Metacritic, which normalizes reviews to a 100-point scale, scored NCAA 14 as a 77 on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This lukewarm critical reception belies its cult classic status today.
Ultimately, the lack of college football gaming alternatives fuels its modern relevancy.
The Checkered Legal History Behind NCAA Video Games
EA Sports initially signed an exclusive licensing deal with the NCAA in 2004, gaining access to stadiums, mascots, fight songs, and game elements replicating college football pageantry.
However, using actual athletes‘ names, images and likenesses has always been prohibited. In lieu of real NCAA players, the games rely on randomly generated rosters.
This workaround let EA bypass compensating the athletes forming the lifeblood of big-time college athletics – until legal challenges demolished the house of cards:
Former Athletes Score Major Settlements
In 2009, former Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller filed a lawsuit questioning the unauthorized use of player likenesses. This sparked a series of cases led by ex-UCLA hoops star Ed O‘Bannon culminating in multi-million dollar settlements awarded to players featured in EA games.
Ending the use of player likenesses torpedoed the NCAA series; EA stopped producing their college football game after NCAA Football 14.
College Sports: Massive Revenues But Debates on Paying Athletes
In 2021 alone, the NCAA pulled in $1.2 billion in television and marketing rights predominantly centered around Division I football and basketball. Powerhouse programs like Alabama football turn profits that dwarf the NBA‘s top teams.
Yet aside from scholarships, athletes see none of this money under outdated "amateurism" standards. The video games epitomized this economic imbalance of unpaid talent fuelling a corporate machine.
When Will New College Football Games Release?
For Microsoft‘s Xbox Series X/S and Sony‘s PlayStation 5, our college gaming drought nears its end. Per Anthony Bailey of Athlon Sports…
"EA Sports College Football is potentially targeting a 2023 launch after inking partnership deals with collegiate brands and license holders."
The company now spends over 2 years reassembling the licensing rights and economic framework required to restore this dormant franchise.
How Will Rosters and Likenesses Be Handled Moving Forward?
A key question looms around whether real athletes can appear alongside their virtual counterparts. In theory, players controlling their Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rights independently of the NCAA could freely license them to gaming companies.
However, EA remains non-committal on leveraging real identities; negotiating thousands of individual contracts presents mass logistical barriers. Madden NFL games took nearly three decades before directly integrating real professional athletes. NCAA solutions will require complex technological and policy innovations that level the playing field for compensation.
The saga of NCAA Football video games proffers valuable perspectives on fairness for the humans behind beloved cultural touchstones like college sports. Player empowerment matters.
