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

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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

# 61 capnbuh @ 12/31/14 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwiggy33


	This to a T. All that needs to be looked at is the past sales numbers. This game was so much fun to play in all game modes back in NHL 09-11. What a coincidence to, HUT didn't even exist at that time and the sales numbers were the best they've ever been. Then the luster of all those game modes and gameplay (controls, graphics, etc) started to go away because it wasn't improved in areas that needed improving. The game was fun, but it still had a ton of issues that needed to be addressed. That fun and solid gameplay (for that time) was good enough to make us not think about the glaring problems. It was honestly like the dev team sat and said, well we have our sales numbers so now we can stop improving the big issues and people will keep buying it. It's killed sales of the actual game. I still think about how good this game really could have been had they actually fixed the really bad areas of this game, when the game was actually good. At the end of the day though, this game had great sales numbers when HUT didn't even exist. All this game needs is great offline gameplay, BeAGM, Playoff Mode, a continuously improved EASHL, regular online and finally a great roster/player editor and this game would be a hit. People don't need HUT to enjoy this game if the other parts are solid. They can go ahead and leave it in but don't waste time every year trying to enhance it. I'm not sure how much they make off HUT purchases, but I would think they could make as much or more money selling more copies then from the extra sales they receive from HUT. Obviously I don't have the numbers on what people actually spend for HUT, but I would think most people don't spend more than $60, which is the price of a game. I guess I really don't know though since I have no interest in the mode. I think it's ridiculous anyway because when I've tried playing the mode I didn't need "Gold Premium" or whatever vintage Oilers Gretzky to win games. This isn't bragging but more of a shot at NHL, but I could win with junior and NHL scrubs against teams with top players because every player has the same skills except for speed. When you don't have speed you make due by out-thinking the other player.

Keep in mind that a much higher % of the money from HUT microtransactions go directly to EA.

# 62 actionhank @ 01/02/15 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by capnlarge


	If only 2k had anticipated EA dropping a stinker. Would've been a good year for 2k hockey

Who knows. They might quietly be weighing their options. Maybe they'll throw a small team together to work on a proof-of-concept type thing, show they can develop an engine that can accurately represent hockey, then see how things look to be shaping up with EA's release.

EA is currently the king of the sports-game mountain in almost every genre, but in a lot, that balance is pretty weak. A solid NHL game that allows players to customize the game, from rosters, player looks, and gameplay being realistic or more arcade and fun could easily steal away a ton of customers. I would gladly jump ship on EA tomorrow if 2K could release something that even looked like it was almost as good as NHL14, just to show EA that they need to pay better attention to their fan base, and not just their bank account.

# 63 Culture Rot @ 01/09/15 04:06 AM

So upsetting. Another once franchise in ruins. No competition either. Sounds like a familiar scenario. Please god dont let Fifa be next.

# 64 fillydilly @ 01/10/15 07:09 AM

The only way to stop shovelware is to boycott future releases. But then EA still got that teenage age-group whom will buy anything that has their favourite star slapped on the cover.

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