EA Sports College Football 24 Video Game Licensing Lawsuit Withdrawn After Settlement | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

The Brandr Group, which helps facilitate collegiate group licensing deals, has withdrawn its lawsuit against EA Sports and its upcoming College Football 24 video game, according to Matt Brown of Extra Points and Michael Smith of the Sports Business Journal.

The Brandr Group had sued EA Sports in June regarding the NIL deals the video game publisher was offering college football players to appear in the game. EA Sports had signed on with OneTeam, a competitor with the Brandr Group, to facilitate those deals in May.

In a joint statement released Wednesday, OneTeam Partners and The BrandR Group announced an "amicable settlement of their past disputes related to college group licensing" and have "agreed to adopt a model that both complements their respective core businesses while separating and operating as completely independent companies."

For video game fans, the news means essentially that the last potential hurdle for EA Sports to overcome in the long-awaited return of its college football franchise is now behind them.

An EA Sports spokesperson said in August that the plan was for the game to be released in the summer of 2024.

The franchise ran between 1998-2013 before Ed O'Bannon's lawsuit against the NCAA over name and likeness rights resulted in the NCAA severing its agreement with EA Sports. Soon after, the Pac-12, Big 10 and SEC also pulled their licenses, forcing the publisher to axe the franchise—and settle with O'Bannon—before eventually announcing plans in 2021 to revive it.

O'Bannon's argument, at least pertaining to video games, was that EA Sports had players in its game that, while not named, bore obvious resemblances to their real-life inspirations. Those players weren't being paid for having their likenesses appear in the game, however.

But now that college athletes are allowed to sign NIL deals, college football players can choose to opt in or out of having their likenesses included in the upcoming game and will be compensated if they opt in. Whether it's a fixed figure or variable payout depending on the popularity of the player is unclear, and there has been pushback against the possibility of stingy payouts.

The game will move forward regardless, with EA Sports using generic player avatars to fill out the rosters in replacement of players who don't agree to have their likeness used.