Latest NHL 15 Roster Continues Season-Long Trend Of Lackluster Updates

Feature Article

Submitted on: 03/09/2015 by Jayson Young

Two big-name, high-potential players, Tyler Myers and Evander Kane, began a month-long, league-wide trading frenzy back on February 11. It took Electronic Arts until March 7 to finally get that big-time Winnipeg/Buffalo trade (along with the 44 other transactions made since then) into NHL 15.

A few minutes, however, is all that it took for the company's Twitter account to tweet out a picture of Kane and Myers in their new uniforms, right after that trade became official.

Gamers who only play NHL 15's offline modes also could have easily gotten their copies up-to-date in mere minutes.

But for Online Versus fans, there was no choice but to wait an entire month, until EA finally put Kane, Myers, and many other NHL players onto their correct clubs.

EA is certainly capable of updating NHL 15 more often. More than 120 new cards (each with adjusted attribute ratings) were added to Ultimate Team between the February 11 Kane-Myers trade and the March 7 roster file release. But it seems that since NHL 15's October title update, which added a hurried, half-baked version of Online Team Play, EA hasn't been interested in addressing any problems that aren't related to their revenue-generating Ultimate Team mode. And roster updates -- or more specifically, the lack thereof -- have been a huge problem for NHL 15, all year long. You just wouldn't know that if you only followed EA's Twitter feed.

Saturday's March 7 roster file -- uploaded five days after the trade deadline -- still shows no noticeable ratings changes. That means Minnesota's Devan Dubnyk, who was recently named the NHL's "First Star of the Month" for February, remains an 81 overall -- making him the worst starting goalie in NHL 15. It also means that Buffalo's Chad Johnson, who has 0 shutouts, an .889 save percentage, and a 3.08 goals-against average in 19 appearances this season, is somehow rated higher than Dubnyk, since Johnson possesses an 82 overall rating. This is just one example of the many oddities in NHL 15's current attributes, which if we're being kind, we'll merely call subpar.

If Electronic Arts is going to insist on making their attributes uneditable (as is the case on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One), then the company has a responsibility to keep those ratings relevant to what's happening inside real NHL arenas. Having released just two significant ratings updates in the six months since NHL 15's September 9 release, this is clearly a responsibility that EA has failed to fulfill.

In a marketplace where Madden NFL, MLB: The Show, NBA 2K, et al. are updating injuries, transactions, and ratings once a week, if not more, the NHL series cannot afford to lag so far behind its competition. Because unlike what happens in the real NHL, EA's hockey franchise won't be able to reverse its declining position in sports gaming's power rankings by simply dropping straight to the bottom.

NHL 15 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 stevendah @ 03/09/15 12:18 PM

Captains are still wrong too i.e.: Montreal.

# 2 Vikes1 @ 03/09/15 12:32 PM

Small dev team or whatever....man, this series has sure slipped down the ladder. Tempting to believe this game's future is maybe in doubt. Next few years may say a lot.

# 3 MDgolf @ 03/09/15 12:45 PM

Does anyone know an official reason why users can't create and share rosters? Why does EA have this policy?

# 4 NC12 @ 03/09/15 01:05 PM

Please get back into hockey 2K... Or anyone else for that matter

# 5 Freakywwe @ 03/09/15 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NC12


	Please get back into hockey 2K... Or anyone else for that matter

I'd love to see Sony try and get back in. Their games had potential

# 6 THESHAMISASHAME @ 03/09/15 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MDgolf


	Does anyone know an official reason why users can't create and share rosters? Why does EA have this policy?

I know when we could edit it back door on the ps3 a few years ago through files it was fine but then the next year when we couldnt it was blocked inadvertently through a Sony software update because Sony wanted to stop cheating with trophies sharing and such online or so I heard .

As far as a roster share and its just a guess its not a priority and now for 16 their probably just trying to get the modes back in the game with no bugs .

I mean the series still doesnt have in game slider saves

# 7 snc237 @ 03/09/15 02:37 PM

The NHL series will never have the updates that the rest of the sport series have however there should at least be a weekly roster update to account for Injuries and trades. Then I would say once a month have rating adjustments update. I think that's very resonable and it's not an everyday task like the other series do which the smaller Dev team at ea should be able to easily handle.

# 8 SVCbearcat10 @ 03/09/15 03:56 PM

I'd rather have them focus entirely on next year's game than do frequent roster updates. They already have the smallest funds and team for EA's sports franchises. It actually may be unreasonable to think they'll get updates like this out as frequently as Madden.

# 9 bigwill33 @ 03/09/15 05:03 PM

Why does everyone think that it has to be "this" or "that"? How freakin hard it is to replicate a player for player trade and then push a roster update out to reflect that for your consumers that paid $60 for the product?

It can't be that freakin hard because almost every other sports game seems to do it far more frequently than the NHL series does.

Tired of excuses being made for the lacking of this series. If it were HUT related it would have probably been addressed within minutes of its occurrence, and the fact that they are showing pictures of the players in their new uniforms on social media within minutes of these trades occurring is flat-out misrepresenting your product to the public. Because you cannot fire up the game and play half of the game modes (which this year is about 2) with the updated rosters.

There is no way that the person(s) in charge of updating the rosters are also hard at work on other aspects of the game and cannot find 10 minutes a week to update something that any of us that paid for the game could do on our own if given the tools to do so.

And if that was even the case then why are they charging full price for something that isn't a full game? Why are we paying $60 at launch for something that can't even begin to come close to what other $60 games offer?

Fix your damn product and treat your consumers with the respect and attention they deserve... before there aren't any left!

# 10 ericromain @ 03/09/15 06:50 PM

I'm pretty understanding about the NHL series. I still think it's outstanding game play and it's come so far in the past 10 years.

That being said, the rate of roster updates is unacceptable. Mattg123's fan created rosters used to be extremely comprehensive and much more frequent than NHL 15's updates. He did it all out of his love for the game and the help of the community of fans.
If EA NHL can't designate a full time head to rosters, why not recruit the hard core community members with the ability to make the changes?
This is 2015, roster updates should happen daily.

# 11 RUFFNREADY @ 03/09/15 10:26 PM

EA NHL HUT is all about "your" money, and not you! They taketh away, and then bringth back; that's how EA's NHL series is rolling right now! This is not acceptable at all. If you are not going to allow us to create/edit/share rosters for the $70cdn, I gave you (EA); then give me an acceptable amount of roster updates for my money!!! Don't most of you that have bought the game feel a little ripped off?
Don't get me wrong, but the gameplay is pretty good; and that's where it ends. Theses dev teams from EA, better wake up; because social media will carve them up in a second, as word of mouth is way too slow nowadays; just like their updates!
I guess we all have to wait and see what year 2 in their development plan is going to bring to the table, as it is clear as day that EA NHL has moved on to NHL 17.
cheers

# 12 GlennN @ 03/10/15 10:54 AM

I couldn't care less about roster updates (being several years into a BeAGM, real NHL rosters are irrelevant to me), but I can't help but wonder how much of this could be solved by the game allowing free editing in all modes. Then, we could just make our own roster updates and remove the entire problem, no?

# 13 actionhank @ 03/10/15 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlennN


	I couldn't care less about roster updates (being several years into a BeAGM, real NHL rosters are irrelevant to me), but I can't help but wonder how much of this could be solved by the game allowing free editing in all modes. Then, we could just make our own roster updates and remove the entire problem, no?

That's my issue. I don't care as much that EA can't seem to figure out how to accurately release decent rosters. I care that EA completely takes away the ability for fans to do it, and still can't get it right.

If EA doesn't want to bother making accurate player faces, builds, equipment use, ratings, and rosters, fine. They should be busy at work making the next game help people forget this version.

But all i ask is, give the people the ability to do it themselves.
The rosters have been terrible for as long as I can remember with EA's NHL. The updates were always pretty slow for rosters, but they seem to somehow lower the bar a bit more. Guys with the wrong handedness, guys who just looked completely wrong, all of it was something that wouldn't be so bad if we could just fix it ourselves and share it easily.

EA seems to love putting up roadblocks to doing things, but hates fixing the road even more.

# 14 Nickflyers @ 03/10/15 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericromain


	If EA NHL can't designate a full time head to rosters, why not recruit the hard core community members with the ability to make the changes?

Seriously this. Hire the Revamped team, Matt, and all the other Roster Editing gurus and let them go to town or give us the ability to Roster Share.

# 15 13whitebread @ 03/11/15 10:37 PM

I have played this series since inception back to the original Sega game and have had a lot of fun with the series and it has been up and down over the years but still I remain hopeful that this maybe a sign that they have shifted focus onto NHL 16. And yes I know they are running out of benefits of the doughts but still I remain hopeful that this black eye will heal and NHL 16 rebounds from the NHL 15 debacle.

# 16 bigwill33 @ 03/12/15 12:35 AM

I fear that by now they have set the proverbial bar so low that '16 will be acclaimed simply for being fully featured once again.

I would be willing to wager a bet that more than half of this community would be fine with that. I would not be, however. I really think that they have set this series back about 5 years by now. I have lost a lot of faith in the producers and company to make a competent and simulations style hockey product in the near future.

# 17 TDKing @ 03/12/15 10:20 AM

If they leave out GM Connected I won't consider it fully featured. So I don't think 16 will be fully featured. Your gonna get 15 with eashl .

# 18 Pezell04x @ 03/12/15 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TDKing


	If they leave out GM Connected I won't consider it fully featured. So I don't think 16 will be fully featured. Your gonna get 15 with eashl .

Bingo.

EA left out EASHL so they can use it as a back of the box feature for 16.

# 19 actionhank @ 03/12/15 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigwill33


	I fear that by now they have set the proverbial bar so low that '16 will be acclaimed simply for being fully featured once again. I would be willing to wager a bet that more than half of this community would be fine with that. I would not be, however. I really think that they have set this series back about 5 years by now. I have lost a lot of faith in the producers and company to make a competent and simulations style hockey product in the near future.

I know that I personally, would be done with them forever if that's all that happens. I sat out for NHL15, because i didn't want to support the idea that a broken game was something that deserved any money at all, much less full price. The lack of acknowledgement and addressing of issues is definitely concerning (If the rest of the game got 1/4 of the traffic on Facebook and Twitter that HUT got, it would be a major change in their current M.O.) given the fact that in my opinion, there was just so much wrong with the release of NHL15, completely ignoring the last-gen copy of the game that was little more than a roster/audio update (yet still had more features...), the EA team seems to almost be oblivious to the entire thing. Almost like the parents of a serial killer and drug addict that just want to talk about how nice the stick figures look in their kid's drawing on the 'fridge...

The optimist in me wants to say that the lack of updates is because they're working hard on NHL16, and unfortunately, leaving NHL15 the way it is.

I guess time will tell. But, if there's just another 'meh' release from EA, i think i'll just stick to trying to pretend i can play real hockey, and digital baseball. I really hope that won't be the case though. Seeing the NHL series rise again would be a really great thing. The greatest sport deserves an equally great game.

# 20 piffbernd @ 03/12/15 03:03 PM

I don't care no more about NHL series. Gameplay is one thing, but don't release NHL 15 next gen as NHL 09 remastered.

« Previous12 Next »

More Links