NHL 15 hasn't had the smoothest year up to this point.

 

Many reviews, including our own, gave the game very pedestrian scores. Of course, critic scoring of game titles is only one aspects of the post-release launch. Many fans have been quite unhappy with the game and its direction on our forums as well.

 

But yet in all of the pessimism there is a glimmer of hope. The gameplay within the new-gen version is actually rather good, and the presentation took giant leaps forward this year. So while this year's game was missing a lot of modes, there is still reason for hope with the future of the franchise.

 

So with all of that said, can NHL recover from this year's debacle and regain its status as one of the premiere titles in our genre?

 

 

Jayson Young: Regardless of how low this year's review scores are, or how loud the consumer outrage is, Electronic Arts' NHL series doesn't seem to be in any danger of disappearing from the marketplace, unless a rival miraculously emerges next season and decides to release a competing NHL product on consoles.

Last generation, the series' sales peaked with NHL 11, as in North America, each subsequent edition of NHL sold less than the previous year. But considering the company's rising Ultimate Team revenue (up 50% year-over-year in Q1 2015), I assume that mode alone is making up for many of the lost sales. This year's "Ultimate Edition," which costs $10 more than a normal copy of NHL 15, is also helping offset the fact that the NHL series has become increasingly unpopular among sports gamers.

 

Chris Sanner: Given the well known (but oft-unspoken) rumors that there were mismanaged studio resources this year, and given the fact NHL has still managed to get gameplay and presentation largely down -- the game really is a few game modes away from being quite good again. So yes, the product will recover and recover nicely next year so long as EA doesn't pull the plug on the series for whatever bad reason they can come up with.

Where fans can gripe at the higher-ups at EA about is where the series could be if not for what is now two wasted years on next-gen. Regardless, the series will be fine long term so long as EA gives it a chance to flourish into the future with the proper resources in development.

 

Glenn Wigmore: Frankly, as Jayson and Chris said, NHL can survive a bad year. It's sad that EA probably doesn't have to own many of the problems that came up around this year's game, but when you have a huge revenue stream in HUT, it's likely pretty easy to feel that you can ride out a low year for sales (and that might not even be the case considering it's selling on four platforms). That said, nothing is really going to steer this year's game into much of a positive direction. There is too much of a pall over the entire NHL 15 launch.

Even with all of this factored in, NHL 16 will likely remedy much of what ails this year's game. I'm sure all of the online modes will be fully restored (OTP, EASHL and possibly GM Connected), and some kind of revised career mode will also likely return. A few of the other peripheral modes may reappear, and many of the small and moderate issues of this year (simulation problems, missing creation features, menus, etc.) will be addressed. Whether gameplay and presentation continue to evolve is an interesting question. On top of that, will EA really add anything new? They might just end up doing so much catch-up work that's impossible to really put a new spotlight on next year's game. I guess the good news is that the only possible direction, it would seem, is up. Let's hope in that upward trajectory, they do a much better job of communicating the ups and downs of the journey to the people that buy their game.