Cashing In: Adding Real Names To Sports Games

ars technica:

Creating a truly authentic experience when playing video games based on the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s leagues is a daunting task for the average gamer.

The NCAA doesn’t allow games to feature the names or likenesses of any of its student-athletes; in-game characters will be the spitting image of real-world players but feature generic names. Gamers looking to create a realistic game in which their favorite team’s roster matches that of its real-world counterpart will spend a fair amount of time inputting information.

While it may sound like an odd way to make a living, there’s some serious money to be had from creating these lists and selling them to players. Brian Kaldenberg started just such an operation out of his Iowa State dorm room in 2004, and he has managed to turn it into a highly-profitable company with four full-time employees.

After assembling the NCAA rosters—a process taking approximately 70-90 hours each year—Gamerosters.com offers three different options: gamers can buy a new memory card for their consoles with the rosters included, or they can send in their own card/drive to Gamerosters.com with $20 to have the information downloaded to the device. Games can also download the files directly for $11.95 to $13.95.

Last year, the company sold 2,500 memory cards and 2,000 downloads (roughly $140,000-$160,000 in total revenue), and this year, sales have already surpassed those numbers.

Editor note: This information is considered to be in the public domain and therefore free for anyone’s use.

Photo by EA Sports.

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