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

# 21 Majingir @ 12/09/14 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by s_mkheidze


	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.

After posting 2 of their worst years in sales in quite some time, hopefully it's a wakeup call to them. But sadly it probably won't be.

# 22 ericromain @ 12/09/14 07:01 PM

I wish Sony would make a hockey game. What they need is some competition.

# 23 ddhex27 @ 12/09/14 11:29 PM

Sales of the game don't matter when you have IAP cash flow rolling in constantly.

# 24 actionhank @ 12/10/14 07:09 AM

I've just never seen a company this out of touch with their fan base...it's beyond disappointing.

How am i supposed to hold out hope for NHL16, when NHL14 and 15 have been non-stop disasters of things being added that no one needs, while legacy issues continue to get ignored. It's insane.

# 25 Cletus @ 12/10/14 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by actionhank


	I've just never seen a company this out of touch with their fan base...it's beyond disappointing. How am i supposed to hold out hope for NHL16, when NHL14 and 15 have been non-stop disasters of things being added that no one needs, while legacy issues continue to get ignored. It's insane.

The worst part of all of this is, it's 2014. There's more ways to get, and stay, in touch than ever before.

# 26 ScarletKnightRU @ 12/10/14 11:03 AM

EA are completely out of touch with their customers, in general. This is just another bit of proof. How about actually listening to your players, EA?

Too much to ask? To us, no. To EA, probably.

# 27 canucksss @ 12/10/14 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericromain


	I wish Sony would make a hockey game. What they need is some competition.

Or any company will do...NHL game is ripe for the taking. EA lied to the consumers by saying that in 14, they didnt release for PS4/X1 because they want to release in 15 fro real New Generation experience. And what did they give to us......half empty game.

# 28 ManiacMatt1782 @ 12/10/14 08:04 PM

Completely out of touch with it's consumer base. It's like they think they can just say take this and like it, and won't have sale drop off dramatically.

# 29 Morkle @ 12/10/14 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Majingir


	After posting 2 of their worst years in sales in quite some time, hopefully it's a wakeup call to them. But sadly it probably won't be.

Unfortunately, the reality I fear is that EA assumes that because it did so bad they no longer feel they need to dedicate time to it.

Also considering there's no rival game at the moment, there's no real need to improve upon anything at a fast rate.

# 30 mlbtheshowfan7 @ 12/11/14 01:32 PM

One of the worst executed game releases in a long while. Not sure I'll ever buy another NHL game, I dodged a bullet by skipping this one.

# 31 nategilbert @ 12/11/14 06:43 PM

What an absolute dumpster fire this game has been. Their latest "roster update" didn't even include all the players on teams. The best part of the whole thing was that their producer Sean Rfrhgbfehdhsdhwbd blocked me on twitter after i criticized him for the lackluster game (no bad words or anything pure feedback). They pump us HUT which maybe a 1/5 of the gambles plays, and don't have simple things like edit player. EA has had no real development while 2K did well with NBA 2K15. The worst part is you know EA doesn't care, and will still keep the same team to make the game. Their producer is arrogant, and is what is holding the series back. As a die hard, life long, season ticket holding hockey fan I gotta say I won't buy the game next year unless there is massive improvement.

# 32 nategilbert @ 12/11/14 06:44 PM

The other great part is their "content" updates don't even work. And I have now been for a month trying to get answers from EA and they keep saying its "escalated to the developer" but never hear anything. What a joke.

# 33 dubeau @ 12/12/14 08:07 AM

I don't think the team should be blamed. It is most surely a decision of EA management to rush this game, an unfinished product. They should have skip a year, but they prefer to fraud peoples of their money. This isn't surprising from EA, and you should always wait before buying their product, to be sure it isn't another greedy release on their parts

# 34 brandon27 @ 12/12/14 09:07 AM

Wow, you really have to wonder if they even want to earn any trust back from the fanbase of this series. The decisions that have been made regarding NHL 15 next gen are just... crazy. There's no other way to describe it. I'm not sure why I still have this game in my collection really. I enjoy hockey, and enjoy hockey games. I had fun playing the game when I only basically thought of it as just that... a video game to kill time. It leaves alot to be desired though, especially when you compare it to past versions.

Just really surprised that after the disaster the release was, they can just carry on with their marketing and hype of insignificant things like this, when they sure as well know that fans are upset over the product itself. Pretty crazy of them to do something like this, knowing full well how upset people still are with the game itself.

They're going to have to prove alot with NHL16 if they even want to consider the thought of having good sales numbers.

# 35 csamuelsvt @ 12/12/14 10:17 AM

What happened to the 3 man celebrations that were supposed to be in the game that they were working on?

What happened to the ease with which Ray Ferraro could come in and record some updated commentary that they could put into the game?

The list goes on and on of nothing but empty promises. They need to overhaul the team immediately. Focusing on HUT is not the way to go.

# 36 bigwill33 @ 12/12/14 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dubeau


	I don't think the team should be blamed. It is most surely a decision of EA management to rush this game, an unfinished product. They should have skip a year, but they prefer to fraud peoples of their money. This isn't surprising from EA, and you should always wait before buying their product, to be sure it isn't another greedy release on their parts

They did skip a year and this is what we got.

# 37 half-fast @ 12/13/14 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morkle


	Unfortunately, the reality I fear is that EA assumes that because it did so bad they no longer feel they need to dedicate time to it. Also considering there's no rival game at the moment, there's no real need to improve upon anything at a fast rate.

I couldnt be happier that I skipped buying this game. What a complete dud. I dont care if they ever release a hockey game again. Someone eventually will. No band-aid fixes wanted here, I'd rather wait it out until another company does it right. I highly doubt 16 will be good.

# 38 Diehardfan @ 12/13/14 02:33 PM

It's always been the same with EA Sports. A line of broken promises that goes from New York to EA Canada in Vancouver. Every year they try to pump up their fan base with promises that they never deliver on and it's not just this current group of programmers...it goes back....WAY back to SEGA and PC hockey games.Don't know what the numbers are for this year's sales but it can't be good. That and only that is what catches their eye.....anyone who has played their games for any length of time knows that they are not quality driven. The only thing that ever moves them is the bottom line.

# 39 ballymenasteve @ 12/13/14 08:07 PM

All EA care about is money, so all this Ultimate Team crap is obviously a priority for them. If suckers with more money than sense stopped paying for UT then EA might get the message, but because it's a cash bonanza for them, why should they bother.

# 40 Zer0 C00lness @ 12/14/14 11:49 PM

According to vgchartz,com, as of 11/22/14 NHL 15 has sold 590,000 copies worldwide on the 4 platforms combined. NHL 14 sold 880,000 copies on 2 platforms. NHL 13 sold 1.2 million copies on 2 platforms. In 2 years, sales have been cut in half. Good for us for telling EA in the most direct way possible that this series has gone to ****. For comparison, Fifa 15 has sold 10.02 million copies, just on the 4 platforms NHL 15 was released on. Clearly, EA will prioritize FIFA over NHL. My question is, with the downward trend in sales, what is the breaking point? At what point does EA say it is not profitable to make this game anymore?

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