NHL 15 Leaves Fans Disappointed Again with Overhyped 'New Era' Announcement

Feature Article

Submitted on: 12/09/2014 by Jayson Young

PR isn't my specialty, but here are some sample announcements Electronic Arts could have made yesterday that might have justified their marketers' month-long buildup to the "New Era" of NHL 15, which went live Monday evening:

1) Letting PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players join lobbies and send friend invites in the Online Team Play mode, instead of being forced to rely on randomized matchmaking.

2) Adding support for EA Game Face created players to the new version of Online Team Play.

3) Finally updating NHL 15's player ratings, for the first time this year.

4) Making the many minor leagues and overseas clubs that are already included in NHL 15 part of the Be A Pro experience, plus bringing back the much-needed "sim to next shift" gameplay feature.

5) Introducing a second class of retired legends to NHL 15, bolstering the original group of 13.

6) Creating a legends-only team that could be used in Exhibition and Be A GM modes, instead of restricting these Hall of Famers to Ultimate Team, where they are affordable for only a tiny percentage of the playerbase. Doing so would also allow fans to finally see the full attribute ratings for legends without having to download a hobbyist's PC software just to discover such basic, essential information.

7) Adding offline tournaments and play a friend options to the PlayStation 4/Xbox One editions of Ultimate Team.

Nothing on that list seems like an unreasonable request for a game that's been sitting on store shelves for 13 weeks and hasn't received a content update in the past 7 weeks. Especially considering that most of those features are already present on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of NHL 15, or are currently a part of other EA Sports titles.

Unfortunately -- and perhaps predictably, given NHL 15's performance this year -- none of those good ideas were realized Monday.

The much-speculated "New Era" turned out to be nothing more than a reissue of an existing Ultimate Team card for former All-Star goaltender and current NHL head coach, Patrick Roy. The only difference between this new item and the card that has been available since November 10 is that the former sports a Colorado Avalanche logo, while the latter shows a Montreal Canadiens crest. The cards' ratings -- or at least, the five attributes that are visible in HUT -- are exactly the same.

"Blink and you'll miss it!" teases next week's NHL 15 reveal.

"It," at this point, must be referring to this marketing team's understanding of its audience.

In a week where EA Sports UFC fans are getting Brock Lesnar for free, the few people still playing NHL 15 just received the virtual equivalent of Christmas morning coal.

NHL 15 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 GrandMaster B @ 12/09/14 10:40 AM

Time for some new people to work on this game. Amazing some of these guys have lasted this long or have not moved on.

# 2 RUFFNREADY @ 12/09/14 11:10 AM

I was warned about purchasing this game' so I waited until Black Friday, and bought it for less than $30. I was getting ready for this "New Era" stuff, and got a excited. As of right now' I am thinking of trading in the game! It wasn't worth the $30 purchase. The game is a total let down in almost all areas! This whole debacle, make me think that they shouldn't have released NHL15 on next-gen this year! I hope NHL16 is much better and more innovative than it's predecessor.
Thanks EA, for hyping up something, for absolutely "Nothing".

# 3 Vikes1 @ 12/09/14 11:52 AM

At this point i'd be thrilled just to get another tuner set outta this thing. You know....something we all might benefit from.

# 4 Retropyro @ 12/09/14 11:58 AM

The entire NHL development team needs to be fired.

# 5 ianlast @ 12/09/14 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retropyro


	The entire NHL development team needs to be fired.

The PR/marketing team for NHL needs to be fired more than anything.

When you've pulled a borderline bait-and-switch on consumers with all the missing game modes, the last thing you should be doing is hyping up some useless HUT gimmicks while other areas of the game sorely need attention.

EA seems incredibly out of touch with what their NHL consumers actually want.

# 6 badazzleroybrown @ 12/09/14 01:09 PM

i like many other were so pumped that i bought it digitally to get access early, what a huge mistake
cause i have to sell my xbox one with the game on hd to get rid of the game.

every year they focus on game tweaks its like they want to sit there and tweak the same stuff and not work on a thing.

i personally do not play online its for cheese play there servers suck anyways
and all this money pit Hut modes are useless . i want to be able to play legends in my gm modes

maybe some historical teams or the ability to create are own .
and how about fixing goalie masks if you trade for one you get there old teams masks , why not let us import images for goalie masks so we can create and share them.
maybe add face scan so that in are offline franchise modes we can use custom face scans where we can edit every players face and put what we want.
i only say this cause they only add rookies never current players plus there current tech is terrible.

and my biggest gripe realistic in game stamina and penalties im so sick of them not being a part of the game its been 5 years at least that we say something to them and they do nothing. do they not realize power plays are a huge factor in game outcomes.

the face off system is so 3rd grade the player models are too big compared to the size of the rink and you can take a skater who is 99 speed and he can not get past the slowest player in the game skating backwards. should add a coach mode as well more camera angles. bring back the 3 stars skating on the ice after the game. adding the ability to have multple hockey players locked up against the boards.

more and more and more penalties and types of them .

# 7 MizzouRah @ 12/09/14 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vikes1


	At this point i'd be thrilled just to get another tuner set outta this thing. You know....something we all might benefit from.

For ME, anything a tuner can do is beyond what needs to happen for NHL 16 and at least I'm having good games now, so I don't want any more updates/tweaks to the game play in NHL 15.

# 8 bigwill33 @ 12/09/14 01:49 PM

The title of this article could've just been "NHL 15 Leaves Fans Disappointed" and it would have been just as appropriate.

# 9 TSGuy @ 12/09/14 01:54 PM

Just hope this series doesn't kill themselves like NBA Live did, it took em years and now there finally starting to get something going.

# 10 Pezell04x @ 12/09/14 02:02 PM

The problem is that there seems to be zero direction with the NHL series. With the NBA 2K series, there was some direction. The MyCareer was better this year than last and you could see improvement. There is no improvement with the Be A Pro in NHL 15 this year. In fact, it is worse than its last generation counterpart. There's so many mistakes in a game that supposedly had a two year cycle and now the support from EA is gone.

While Madden continues to update its roster weekly, the NHL team hasn't done it once this season. There seems to be zero support outside of new ways to spend your money. If this is what NHL games are going to become then I don't think I can support this franchise, this team and this publisher. I just can't do it anymore.

I passed on 15 because EASHL was my thing. Outside of Be A GM, where I barely made it past the all-star break, EASHL is where I spent all of my time. Hours and hours on a Friday night dumped into 3v3 or 4v4 with my group of friends.

Even if EASHL does return in 16 (and I would be surprised if it didn't), I don't know if I want to back a team that doesn't seem to really care about the product they are putting out. I am not a guy who wants to see people lose jobs but the product has become stagnant and a once innovative title is slipping into below average territory.

# 11 Majingir @ 12/09/14 03:39 PM

Unless EA fixes up their games big time or I just get real stupid/desperate to play a new EA NHL game years from now, I won't ever be buying a EA Sports NHL game again.

I've been playing NHL video games for 15 years now and at one point, EA Sports was even my fave company out there, but that has quickly changed and now I hate EA Sports almost as bad as I hated THQ(thankfully THQ is dead now).

They just refuse to fix some of the major gameplay problems in the game(too few penalties,too many passing issues,CPU gets so many rebounds/rebound goals,puck control for the users are horrible,and sliders in general are broken), and instead just focus their time/effort on HUT and all these stupid gimmicks. And have that horrible PR guy who dodges more questions than a politician and acts more annoying that pushy commission salesmen. He's even blamed the CUSTOMERS for why certain issues occur in the game, instead of trying to fix some issues,he said it was because of how people play the game, as to why some things do(or don't) happen....Just amazes me the types of things they do at times/lengths they go to in order to defend their mistakes.

# 12 mjarz02 @ 12/09/14 03:45 PM

More than likely the team is spending their time on 16. It doesnt make financial sense to put any more work into 15, since most have declared it a disaster.

# 13 Majingir @ 12/09/14 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjarz02


	More than likely the team is spending their time on 16. It doesnt make financial sense to put any more work into 15, since most have declared it a disaster.

And people have said that about NHL15 when NHL 14 was out. And about NHL14 when NHL13 was out. And about NHL13 when NHL12 was out.......You get the point.

# 14 mikey87 @ 12/09/14 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Majingir


	Unless EA fixes up their games big time or I just get real stupid/desperate to play a new EA NHL game years from now, I won't ever be buying a EA Sports NHL game again. I've been playing NHL video games for 15 years now and at one point, EA Sports was even my fave company out there, but that has quickly changed and now I hate EA Sports almost as bad as I hated THQ(thankfully THQ is dead now). They just refuse to fix some of the major gameplay problems in the game(too few penalties,too many passing issues,CPU gets so many rebounds/rebound goals,puck control for the users are horrible,and sliders in general are broken)

Just like they refuse the make player attributes affect anything. I like playing "coach mode" and I really can't see any difference between John Scott and Nathan Gerbe... And that is why I don't play their games anymore, NHL 13 was so bad that I couldn't persuade myself to buy 14 or 15.

# 15 jyoung @ 12/09/14 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjarz02


	It doesnt make financial sense to put any more work into 15, since most have declared it a disaster.

UFC and NBA Live 15 have both underperformed in sales, like NHL 15 has, yet both games are still receiving new content and updates to modes that aren't Ultimate Team.

NHL 15 has basically been left for dead since the October 21 title update that added a half-baked version of Online Team Play. EA hasn't even updated the player ratings a single time since release day; that's the least they could do for the people who bought this year's game.

# 16 s_mkheidze @ 12/09/14 04:16 PM

Honestly...it doesn't matter anymore. By now we should ALL know that EA does not give a crap about true hockey sim players so long as they have people buying the game and then paying for silly content like hut.
Frankly I don't blame them....money talks.

# 17 Cardot @ 12/09/14 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ianlast


	The PR/marketing team for NHL needs to be fired more than anything.

It doesn't sound like the PR/Marketing team had much to work with.

# 18 Moose24x @ 12/09/14 05:07 PM

At this point all I want is a roster update that appropriately boosts rookies and breakout players while decreasing aging/declining/underperforming players. And for guys like Soderberg to be given a generic blonde haired, pale skinned face instead of being tan, middle eastern looking dudes. Unprecedented player likeness is right.

# 19 NC12 @ 12/09/14 05:47 PM

Still waiting for a worthwhile update or for another price drop before I finally purchase, just not sure which (if either) is most likely to happen first lol

# 20 statnut @ 12/09/14 05:59 PM

LOL. I had actually forgotten about this hyped "New Era" announcement, mostly because I knew it would be garbage. Still can't play OTP with friends, that's all I know. Try getting 4 or 5 people into the same lobby? It's madness.

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