Winter Classic in PS4 / Xbox One?

[13SM13]

haven't heard or seen anything about this, not a dealbreaker for me, but has anything been confirmed about it being in / left out of next-gen versions?

[PensDynasty87]

It's been taken out of new gen.

[huntt26]

I forget where I read it, but it's not in the game

[Cardot]

EA has never really seemed to embrace the Winter Classic...which I don't get??? Outside of the hardcore crowd, the Winter Classic is the NHL's marquee event. And a perfect change of pace in a video game.

The game should have multiple outdoor venues (some fictional/generic if need be). And it should be a part of GM mode as well. In fact there are lots of possbilities with this mode.

[ChubbyBanana]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cardot

The game should have multiple outdoor venues (some fictional/generic if need be). And it should be a part of GM mode as well. In fact there are lots of possibilities with this mode.

I agree! Reminds me of the old frozen pond rink I believe the other series had before it's final hours. Was a fun way to change things up.

[Schmackity]

It will be in past-gen consoles but not current-gen ones.

[bigwill33]

They do kind of waste resources in the way they implement the outdoor venues now.

If they are to keep adding them to the game they need to make it so that they are offered in more game modes. Spend all that time creating them and we barely get to see them, if ever. I know some people that didn't even realize some of them were in the game.

[spidertour02]

I think the biggest hurdle is that including the Winter Classic is a big waste of resources. If you think about it, the hours and cash they would have to spend to model the stadiums (and remember, they would have to come up with their own rink design because the host stadium hasn't even been finalized yet), license the stadium names, reconfigure their lighting system (since it's designed for indoor locations), add a weather system (people would complain about a Winter Classic without the option of snow), adjust the physics to account for the weather system (pucks altering trajectory because of snow on the ice, etc.), and so forth would be pretty high for something that most people will never use.

The only way I could imagine it being financially workable is if they could somehow kluge together a Winter Classic from other sources. For example, the 2015 Winter Classic is being hosted by Washington. Suppose for argument's sake that it's held at FedExField. They could borrow the stadium build from the Madden team and adapt it by adding the hockey rink and various stuff around it, and they could get to work adapting the Madden team's lighting and weather systems (which are already designed for the stadium) to their engine's code. It's not a perfect solution (of the six Winter Classics so far, only two have been held in NFL stadiums), but it's a relatively easy one so long as the programming code is close enough to adapt from one game to the other.