Following an 11-year wait, EA Sports College Football 25 was finally released on July 19, featuring 11,000 digital avatars that were created by 3D scanning headshots of real college football athletes using artificial intelligence (AI).

The new video game is a huge upgrade from the previous National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football franchise in 2013, thanks to its AI integration that enabled game maker Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA) to include real-looking 3D models of football players for the first time.

From Headshots to AI Avatars

The standard for generating virtual versions of human players in game development utilizes full-body scans, as in the case of fellow college football video game Madden NFL series.

However, EA needed a cheaper and more efficient method to streamline this process since the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) has six times as many athletes as the professional American football league NFL.

The company devised a solution using AI to transform photos of 11,000 FBS players into 3D avatars in a few seconds. Unlike generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s DALL-E, this technology does not rely on learned datasets but collects data from actual headshots to produce a full-body avatar.

Though less detailed than the Madden NFL characters, EA’s 3D athletes show clear improvements compared to the generic features available in previous series of the video game. They could also be refined by supplying new data to train the AI model to deliver more accurate results.

This breakthrough in game development has laid the foundation for AI technology to be leveraged to set a new bar for realism in sports video games. It can be expected that titles in the future will offer an improved and immersive gaming experience now that the logistical hurdles of scanning countless college athletes are out of the way.

The FBS players who submitted their photos all received at least $600 and a deluxe copy of the game for rights to their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Those involved in the promotion were also compensated for being on the game cover and advertising the product on social media.

EA Sports College Football 25 is available on Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S for $69.99. PC Gamers are still waiting for the video game to roll out on desktop. 

Previous Setbacks

The release of the new video game took over a decade after EA reportedly discontinued the franchise in 2013 due to legal battles against student-athletes and governing bodies.

A class-action lawsuit was filed against the game maker and the College Licensing Company (CLC) for unlawful commercial use of athletes’ NIL. Former University of California, Los Angeles basketball star Ed O’Bannon led the complaint after a video game used his measurements, handedness, and skin tone to create a character without compensating him.

NCAA also added fuel to the fire after prohibiting players from profiting in any way while still affiliated with a school.

Although O’Bannon and the plaintiffs agreed to settle with EA Sports and CLC for $40 million, the video game company was forced to cancel the football franchise as the NCAA refused to lift its ban.  

However, that was only true until 2021 when—at last— the association approved policy changes that allowed student-athletes to earn money from their NIL and activities, including endorsement deals, social media promotions, coaching, personal appearances, and autograph signing.

Calling the rule change a “bold” move, EA Sports president Cam Weber announced in the same year that AI would be integrated into their next video game, which took three years to launch.