Fans have been celebrating the long-awaited return of college football video games with the release of EA NCAA 25 College Football; however, Electronic Arts (EA) has drawn plenty of criticism for its lack of a PC release.
After more than a decade since its last release in the series, EA Sports College Football is back, allowing gamers the opportunity to play as their favorite U.S. colleges and take them to the gridiron.
This comes after years of campaigning by fans for the beloved series to return. It was then officially announced that it would be coming back in February 2021, marking an agonizing three-year gap before the first game of this new effort would ever see the light of day.
PC Gamers Call Out EA's College Football Game
EA NCAA 25 College Football hit store shelves after a long and arduous wait by fans, but PC gamers are being left out of the fun and they are making it known.
College Football 25 was finally released (in early access) on Tuesday, July 16 with its full release coming three days later on Friday, July 19.
However, the game has been noticeably quiet about a sort of PC debut.
At launch, EA's long-awaited return to collegiate athletics is only available on consoles, coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Because of this, PC fans who were eager to get back into the series have been left out in the cold after assuming the title would come to their platform of choice like most other tentpole games of the modern era.
Fans have not been quiet about this decision, taking to various online forums to voice their frustration.
During the title's early access period, CBS Sports reporter Brent Brookhouse posted on his personal X (formerly Twitter) page, summing up the feelings of most PC gamers about the decision.
He called the lack of any sort of PC release a "bummer" because he does not see himself picking up an Xbox or PlayStation "basically...for one game:"
"'NCAA Football 25' not coming out for PC is a massive bummer. I don't see buying a new console in the near future, especially when it would basically be for one game since I am a PC guy."
That seems to be the most common sentiment for those who have made PC their video game platform of choice, as buying a console to simply play College Football 25 is a pricey proposition.
Other PC fans have called EA out as they believe this College Football release mishap is yet another instance in a pattern of the publisher pulling value away from the platform-exclusive subscription service EA Play Pro.
EA Play Pro offers PC gamers the chance to subscribe for a monthly fee, granting them access to a large library of EA titles that includes instant access to brand-new day-one releases (something EA NCAA 25 College Football would have likely fallen into).
Some fans see this as a concerted effort by EA to move value away from the service and incentivize players to buy their games at full price elsewhere.
What makes the decision to forgo PC even more confounding is that other recent EA Sports titles like Madden NFL 24, F1 24, EA Sports FC 24, and EA Sports PGA Tour have all come to the platform.
The only major EA Sports franchise to skip out on PC has been EA Sports NHL, with the last title in the NHL series to not be console exclusive being NHL 09.
EA has remained quiet throughout all of this, with no word on whether a PC release is eventually coming or not.
EA NCAA 25 College Football is now available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
