NCAA Football 14
NCAA Football 14 in action.
Categories

EA settles lawsuit over using images of college football players in video games

Electronic Arts has reached a settlement that could give $40 million to more than 100,000 college football and basketball players for using their likenesses in NCAA-branded video games.

The payment covers games that date back to 2003 and will go to players who were either on college rosters or had their images used in games that EA made. Lawyers for the athletes said it would be the first time college athletes would be paid for commercial use of their faces. Payments range from $48 for each year an athlete was on a roster to $951. The latter is for each year the image of an athlete was used in a video game.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X! Join now to enjoy our free and premium perks. 

Join now →

Sign in to your account.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.