EA Sports
There was little doubt EA Sports was going to rake in some serious dough thanks to the release of College Football 25, and its decision to let people shell out some extra cash to play the game a few days early paid off in a big way based on how many gamers ultimately opted for that option.
Friday marked the official release date of College Football 25, which was easily the most anticipated title in the history of sports video games.
EA Sports paid close to $7 million thanks to the NIL deals that were offered to the more than 11,000 players who got $600 (and a copy of the game) in exchange for licensing their name, image, and likeness, and it’s safe to assume the developer spent much, much more to ultimately bring College Football 25 into existence.
However, it’s pretty safe to assume it’s going to recoup its initial investment while making a boatload of money in the process thanks in no small part to its decision to charge a premium for the Early Access window that opened on Monday afternoon.
The base version of College Football 25 will set you back $70, but EA Sports offered a Deluxe Version for $100 that included Early Access and some Ultimate Team perks in addition to a $150 MVP Bundle boasting a similar package and some other digital items to sweeten the pot.
We already knew Early Access was a cash cow based on how many players were online on the first day of the unofficial release, but we got some insight into just how lucrative it was courtesy of the press release EA Sports put out on Friday that confirmed a grand total of 2.2 million people couldn’t wait until July 19th to play College Football 25.
If you don’t feel like doing the math, that means the publisher raked in at least $66 million in the course of three days thanks to the premium alone while securing a minimum of $220 million if you take the price of the full game into account (a number that doesn’t take potential MVP Bundle sales into consideration).
Must be nice.