Changing the Game - EA's New Approach for NHL 16

[ChaseB]

To an outsider, it feels like it must have been a strange offseason for the folks at EA Canada who shepherd the NHL franchise. After NHL 15 was generally lambasted by critics, they still had to plow forward, developing the next iteration in the series without much of a breather to take stock of what happened. However, that does not mean they have not "rebuilt on the fly." In my time visiting the developers up in Burnaby as well as checking out the game at E3, it’s clear to me that the team has taken many steps to right the ship.

This is not to say that any of these moves guarantee a successful product this year, but they at least demonstrate an awareness by all levels of the development team (design, presentation, marketing, post-launch support) that things need to be different going forward. I was one of the many who felt disillusioned by last year’s product, as it seemed to want to reset expectations for content while finally improving the long-stagnant presentation. This resulted in a game that started to look the part of a next-gen game, but it didn’t have the content to back it up. Gameplay was buffed by some new parts under the hood, but they were clearly first-year efforts -- with puck physics and collision physics being the focus.

Even with the black eye of last year’s release, everyone on the team has a good poker face. There’s still a quiet confidence in the Burnaby office, as it’s a core group who experiences very little turnover and who has, by and large, done right by the NHL brand. But one thing is clear: NHL 15 is not a product that represented what that team is capable of, and those folks have taken many steps to change the language of development, add accountability to their staff and reconnect with all types of fans.

Read More: Changing the Game - EA's New Approach for NHL 16 (Written by Glenn Wigmore)

[Taku]

Lots of words

[ChaseB]

Quote: Originally Posted by Taku

Lots of words

Oodles Taku, just oodles.

[Wiggy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Taku

Lots of words

There are a lot of them =)

[HenryClay1844]

At least the NHL team seems to have tried to do some stuff to improve communication and actually listen to fans. It is the higher ups at EA who seem to be impeding any real progress for all EA Sports games. They wouldn't hire more people for NHL, but I'm sure they chastised the NHL team for lower sales.

The FIFA team in contrast, is now unfortunately plagued by a nearly complete lack of communication with fans outside of promoting FUT and dealing with youtube "celebrities."

[aaron777]

All those words are really saying nothing.They say this game doesn't sell enough to warrant more people to develope it. The sales aren't there for the simple fact it's the same product every year .Hockey games weren't always crappy a quick Google can see the stats .They started dropping when the series got stale. There's really no forward progress with this game .I can't really pin it all on this rammer guy , but he should take some of it .To be fair you guys ripped off the customers last year there's no excuse. Great your answering questions now from the fans but let's be honest there were a lot of stupid questions asked. I just wish you guys made some big improvements to this game . When you see what these guys at 2k16 NBA are doing its crazy these guys get it . I hope you guys can add more to the gym mode take a page out of MLB NBA even madden get some ideas be creative .

[Wiggy]

Quote: Originally Posted by aaron777

All those words are really saying nothing.They say this game doesn't sell enough to warrant more people to develope it. The sales aren't there for the simple fact it's the same product every year .Hockey games weren't always crappy a quick Google can see the stats .They started dropping when the series got stale. There's really no forward progress with this game .I can't really pin it all on this rammer guy , but he should take some of it .To be fair you guys ripped off the customers last year there's no excuse. Great your answering questions now from the fans but let's be honest there were a lot of stupid questions asked. I just wish you guys made some big improvements to this game . When you see what these guys at 2k16 NBA are doing its crazy these guys get it . I hope you guys can add more to the gym mode take a page out of MLB NBA even madden get some ideas be creative .

While NHL 15 deserved lots of scorn, you have to be realistic about the development team and hockey as a videogame proposition. The potential sales market for a hockey game is not that of other sports. Compounding that, the team that develops the game is about 1/3 or 1/4 the size of that of FIFA or NBA, and the budget for the game also reflects that team size.

It's fair to expect a certain level of features and innovation with the NHL product, but at the very least you have to understand the realities of the team that develops it. Annualized game development kind of sucks, and I wish developers would look for other ways to make products of this scale.

But as a fan, I do agree. You're paying your $60, and the game should satisfy some basic core pillars and innovate in a few other ways. NHL 15 didn't do that, but hopefully games going forward will.

[adayinthelife]

First off, I really enjoyed the piece. Love seeing longer form stuff about the process.

Quote: Originally Posted by Wiggy

While NHL 15 deserved lots of scorn, you have to be realistic about the development team and hockey as a videogame proposition. The potential sales market for a hockey game is not that of other sports. Compounding that, the team that develops the game is about 1/3 or 1/4 the size of that of FIFA or NBA, and the budget for the game also reflects that team size. It's fair to expect a certain level of features and innovation with the NHL product, but at the very least you have to understand the realities of the team that develops it. Annualized game development kind of sucks, and I wish developers would look for other ways to make products of this scale. But as a fan, I do agree. You're paying your $60, and the game should satisfy some basic core pillars and innovate in a few other ways. NHL 15 didn't do that, but hopefully games going forward will.

This right here is the key, to me. It's been repeated over and over that the series is small, the team is small, the budget is small. I can understand and appreciate all of that - but that is exactly why I feel like the team itself needs a serious shake up.

The article even mentions that there is little to no turnover with this dev team, and I just feel like at this point that is contributing just as much to the series' stagnant state as are the budget and time constraints.

I'm not necessarily calling for a culling of the dev team every year, but with a company that size, there must be some sort of way to shuffle the deck. Whether it's moving guys around to different teams, or having a small core group and using different contract devs, I don't know. It just really seems that part of the reason the series has begun to feel so one note, is simply because we're not getting enough fresh views on things from guys that can actually do the work (i.e. devs, not "game changers").

It actually fees like they're aware of this issue as well, given that we've seen/heard a lot more from Ben Ross this year rather than Rammer like the past __ years, but just passing the mic around the same circle doesn't feel like it's growing or expanding the series at all.