Won't be coming to PC
very disappoited.
Forum Discussion
EA_Aljo
Community Manager
Community ManagerThis has been very heavily discussed over the last few years. The TLDR is that, contrary to popular belief, there just isn't a big enough audience for it. Yes, we fully understand you and your friends would play. That's awesome, but we would need a much higher amount of PC hockey players to warrant the very high cost of this. Porting the game to PC is probably the easier part. Combine that with building an infrastructure to support it and those costs skyrocket. Not to mention, all that work that goes in to this means the far more popular console versions wouldn't get the attention they need with all those resources devoted to a PC version.
We all are die hard hockey fans, but it also doesn't have the worldwide fandom of a sport like soccer. This is reflected as well in the amount of PC video game hockey players. It would take a pretty extraordinary amount of them to make the very big job of bring the game to PC not be a loss.
@EA_Aljo
"The TLDR is that, contrary to popular belief, there just isn't a big enough audience for it."
This has been the message for the last several years. However the PC market is MUCH different than it was back in 2008(NHL09) when EA NHL last shipped on PC. What metrics, stats, proof is there that EA claims there's no current PC Hockey market?
Number of PC gaming users worldwide from 2008 to 2024
Number of Gamers Worldwide 2022/2023: Demographics, Statistics, and Predictions
- EA_Aljo
I've said it many times. This isn't about the number of PC players growing. It's about how many of them want to play a sim-style hockey game. The reality is that it's going to be a lot less than what everyone seems to be thinking. Take the number of FIFA players on PC. Now, subtract that by 10x. That's a more realistic number and it's not enough to support a PC release.
I truly hope a PC version comes out someday or at a minimum, cloud gaming supports it so it can be played on a PC.
So the issue is too many mouths to feed, because if dev teams with less than 5 people can put out solid PC games with a few years of dev time and make a profit then a company with thousands of employees should be able to figure it out. Man hours on a project should be the same regardless of team size, bigger team is less hours per person. Ez Pz.
Still hoping some indie dev will put out a competing game but sadly it seems like motorsport is the only sport that has any competition on PC.- EA_Aljo
You're entitled to your assumptions, but they are flat out wrong. Sure, an indie studio with a handful of devs can make a PC only game and generate a profit. This is entirely different than one with 10x the amount of developers building a game with complex AI, multiplayer connections, and a demanding graphics engine that needs to support virtually limitless configurations of hardware and software. Not to mention the cost of licensing. Throw supporting it on top of that and you have some very high costs that are not going to be recuperated with the smaller PC hockey video game community.
- @EA_Aljo Where do you get these statistics from, that there "isn't enough players interested in sim-style hockey game"? I think that there is many users here whom would like to know that. I know you can not share private information but some statistics / numbers would be fantastic to know.
Football Manager for football, a sim-style football game came out of nowhere, from few thousands of active users to couple of ten thousands in just matter of years. Spreadsheet type of football manager-ing was a strange game for me to play when I was way younger, but now as an grown adult it fascinates me. Sim-style games have grown so much in past few years and just looking at the reddit posts about asking NHL for PC is enormous.
Tape-to-tape just came this year, on may. Not NHL licensed.
What about a hockey game made by EA that isn't NHL licensed? I think that area of interested players would be way lower than licensed.
EA, the biggest game company known to man thinks that NHL isn't profitable for PC - well why then there is PGA Tour purchaseable for PC? They have around 150-300 active users per day - bet that number would be way higher for NHL.
I live in Finland where that demand is pretty big for NHL port to PC. I get that hockey isn't that popular sport like football (which is my main sport) but still. Most of my friends plays or have played NHL in their younger era and most of them still wonder why there is.no.NHL.for.PC.
We need one. Make one. Community is asking for it. Make the good deed that EA fans want. Okay, the game is not profitable by your stats? Maybe port the game to PC just for the good old reputation +.
@Interchangeabl3 wrote:
@EA_AljoWhere do you get these statistics from, that there "isn't enough players interested in sim-style hockey game"? I think that there is many users here whom would like to know that. I know you can not share private information but some statistics / numbers would be fantastic to know.
Football Manager for football, a sim-style football game came out of nowhere, from few thousands of active users to couple of ten thousands in just matter of years. Spreadsheet type of football manager-ing was a strange game for me to play when I was way younger, but now as an grown adult it fascinates me. Sim-style games have grown so much in past few years and just looking at the reddit posts about asking NHL for PC is enormous.
Tape-to-tape just came this year, on may. Not NHL licensed.
What about a hockey game made by EA that isn't NHL licensed? I think that area of interested players would be way lower than licensed.
EA, the biggest game company known to man thinks that NHL isn't profitable for PC - well why then there is PGA Tour purchaseable for PC? They have around 150-300 active users per day - bet that number would be way higher for NHL.
I live in Finland where that demand is pretty big for NHL port to PC. I get that hockey isn't that popular sport like football (which is my main sport) but still. Most of my friends plays or have played NHL in their younger era and most of them still wonder why there is.no.NHL.for.PC.
We need one. Make one. Community is asking for it. Make the good deed that EA fans want. Okay, the game is not profitable by your stats? Maybe port the game to PC just for the good old reputation +.theres hardley a market for nhl on console let alone pc. just look at nhls tv ratings compared to every other sport, including college leagues . its a minor fraction. hockey more so nhl is a niche spprt for a niche audiance.
