Time For A New Hockey Game

As I'm sure has been said on these forums before, EA does not have an exclusive contract with the NHL to make ice hockey video games like it does with the NFL.

Any other developer could make a deal with the NHL for licensing rights. That it hasn't happened in the decade since 2K stopped making their NHL game would suggest that either the NHL's asking price is too high or the estimated revenue versus cost of developing a game is too low.

It's unfortunate that EA has used it's place as the only option for gamers in the hockey space to pump out iterations of the game in the past few years that has pivoted away from simulation hockey to some sort of arcade hockey that is more concerned with deke moves and licensed pond hockey wear than anything else.

Hi there, @internetg611 

Can you get some video showing slower players outskating faster players? Thanks!

You guys have been given many examples of this . You know it happens and why it happens.Stop with the canned responses and fix the issues. When is the next patch coming out and what issues does it address?

---

@internetg611 wrote:

You guys have been given many examples of this .

---

Literally never seen video of an "83 Dougie Hamilton and his Tyler Myers were faster than my Connor McDAvid and my Dylan Larkin." Is it possible McDavid was at the end of a shift? Already hustled for too long?

Played  game where I matched a lower overall team via cross-play against a PS5 player. He had 65 overall Marcus Hellgren Smed as his goalie. His best player was a 77 Marko Dano. My goalie is a 89 Patrick Roy, and my best player is 89 Kucherov. Half my team is above 86 overall, and I have 5 synergies on. This guy from viewing his roster had 2 synergies active which one of them was useless. He must have been Div 5 since I got 5 points after winning in a shootout.

Marko still outskated my players and he managed to score 2 goals from behind my net. Don't know why when I was defending, my A.I. defense decided to leave away to stay wide by the boards, although it's been a consistent problem with A.I. not playing positional hockey. 

It's stuff like this that makes people like myself unmotivated to play. I play competitive hockey currently IRL and wrap around goals are way tougher to do on skilled goalies in real life. an 89 Patrick Roy shouldn't be so weak on these. 

Even when I started on HUT this year my base cards were faster than my opponents stacked team. I went on a 12 game winning streak. Since upgrading it seems my higher end cards are slower and unskilled. 

Hey @EA_Aljo ,

This problem has been there for years. People have been sending multiple videos about this and you keep denying the problem. Do you play your own game or EA just pays you to deny every reported problems on this forum. Seriously man, do you really think people playing this game are stupid?

---

@BIGRlTCHY wrote:

Marko still outskated my players and he managed to score 2 goals from behind my net. 

---

Without video, there's no way to determine this is the fault of the game though. There's a lot of variables at play that would determine if any 2 players on the ice have speed differentials. Overalls and/or Speed/Accell attributes are not the only factors.

If you have an 89 McDavid but you're starting/stopping more often and/or you've got him on the ice while his line energy is depleted, or you're making hard angles while skating, my 82OVR nobody will outskate you if I'm not doing those things and he's fresh. 

Turn a console on. You’ll see it for yourself. 

@QUIETLIFE68 It's unfortunate that EA has used it's place as the only option for gamers in the hockey space to pump out iterations of the game in the past few years that has pivoted away from simulation hockey to some sort of arcade hockey that is more concerned with deke moves and licensed pond hockey wear than anything else.

Totally agree with that and I think a lot of people feel the same way. It's like they make this game now to please a small group of people. Why, I don't know but the gameplay of this game has nothing to do with real hockey. If you’re an experience hockey player and NHL23 is your first experience, forget how you learned to play hockey if you want to win games.

---

@Raven969 wrote:

@QUIETLIFE68 It's unfortunate that EA has used it's place as the only option for gamers in the hockey space to pump out iterations of the game in the past few years that has pivoted away from simulation hockey to some sort of arcade hockey that is more concerned with deke moves and licensed pond hockey wear than anything else.

Totally agree with that and I think a lot of people feel the same way. It's like they make this game now to please a small group of people. Why, I don't know but the gameplay of this game has nothing to do with real hockey. If you’re an experience hockey player and NHL23 is your first experience, forget how you learned to play hockey if you want to win games.

---

Nailed it.  There's nothing hockey about this hockey game anymore except for the aesthetics.  They watered the gameplay down to cater to a bunch of people who promote their packs on yt.  The rest of us don't matter.  We provide video after video, year after year, only to have the same problems for 3,4,5 years in a row.  They can fix these things.  It's a choice not to.  We've seen them make amazing hockey games.  The talent is there.  It's the ones making the calls who are ruining this game...or should I say franchise because every game since 14 has been a disaster.  8 years of below mediocre games in a row.  Maybe it's time to stop saying they listen, and actually start SHOWING they listen because at this rate, by NHL25, they'll have driven a majority of their customers to the point of saving their money for games that actually show some effort put into them.