Won't be coming to PC

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@MegaRace wrote:

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

@rabid55wolverine 

I know we have the perception of being greedy. You also have to look at the cost of developing and supporting games that have very large communities. Without modes like Ultimate Team, chances are good we wouldn't have the advances that have been made over the years. I know many of you would be happy just having NHL 14 on repeat, but that's really not what we're going for. The idea is to keep advancing the game by improving on what we have and making new additions to try to satisfy the desire for a new game every year. Ultimate Team has helped with that. The more the game makes, the more we have to keep putting back in to it.

Which brings us back to one of the big reasons there is no PC version. I'm not going to begin to assume that sales plus microtransactions of NHL on PC would alone cover the cost of porting the game and supporting it. That's definitely not something I'm involved in. You make good points though that if there were the PC hockey market people are thinking, most likely another company would have jumped on that. AAA PC games are a big undertaking and tremendous to support. Which is why I'm really hoping that cloud gaming will become a viable option for future NHL games.

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I am sure you're a good person but that isn't the issue, no one is claiming you or the NHL devs are greedy people. It is the corporation you are paid to defend that is greedy. However that is just how corporations are designed to operate. They exist only for their own benefit and not to benefit their employees or customers. They have some of the most predatory practices and it is sick to see. However this probably isn't the place for that sort of discussion.

Anyway sim type hockey isn't coming to PC because no one wants to fund it. Even the smallest kickstarter projects tend to have some other source of initial funding to get going and no one wants to make that investment in this market. Someone could build something from the ground up around pure sim hockey gameplay with no licensing and PC only and once they have it perfected they launch it on consoles and even have the option to add licensing later if they have the budget for it. Then again maybe user added mods alleviate the need for any of that. 

TLDR: No one wants to take the financial risk on NHL pc. 

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Agreed on all counts. I think it's going to take something along the lines of BattleBit coming out to really show up the mainstays (Battlefield/COD) on how to do a shooter. Competition is the only thing that drives companies to do better.

My personal hope is that one day, someone comes out with an NHL game that doesn't operate on the yearly cycle, but instead works like Microsoft Flight Sim or Euro Truck Sim 2... it would simply be called 'NHL'. no year, no designation. The engine remains that same throughout it's lifecycle (shoot for 10 years). The same engine and base game stops fragmentation of the playerbase, people who buy NHL in 2028 will be able to crossplay multiplayer with the originals who bought it in 2025. The base game is a subscription of $40 year. Additional paid DLC's could be used for non-game altering items like alternate Jerseys, customizing players equipment, goalie mask/pads paintjobs. Nothing about the DLC's would inhibit the base game from functioning between 2 random people who decide to play online for the first time. Roster updates would happen in realtime throughout the season.

All because you've now 'subscribed' your game and have a guaranteed revenue stream, and because you haven't silod players to particular yearly releases, there are no dead lobby's and everyone is playing the same game. There would be no need to 'remove' features from games that existed in previous years, every feature that already exists stays and gets expanded on if they make the game better. Newly added features would tested through a beta channel to see if they're worth keeping or not.

That's the game I hope to see in my lifetime. As someone who's mind was initilly blown back in 1992 when I played the very first NHL Hockey on Sega Genesis... due to the limitations of cartridges and distribution and no internet, I can understand the yearly model and was perfectly ok with it. Every game was a great leap forward.

Somewhere along the way, this stopped being the case, with many years being complete downgrades, and with the internet era, the yearly model makes about as much sense as a bag of bricks.

Again, look how much longevity SCS Software got out of the Prism3D engine going 12 years strong. The Devs know the engine like the back of their hands and easily create new free updates and paid DLC content without breaking a sweat. If EA went with a longterm engine plan and gave people the right content.. I know the subscription model would succeed. This is one case where I wouldn't mind seeing the game using DRM with always checking in with EA servers.

@BullitMagnit74  I just hate software as a subscription. there are other ways to provide funding for projects without resorting to a subscription. That said I also hate microtransactions but while Battle Bit is a great example of what can be done without some sort of paid DLC or something they will eventually run out of money where these massive corporations have money printers in the basement and have zero risk of failing. For Battle Bit to survive long term they will need to add some sort of axillary funding source. Now maybe they find a way to do so that isn't soul sucking but who knows.

Another example is CSGO/CS2 they offer a free/cheap game to get into supported by potentially predatory gambling. I feel better about paying those microtransactions since the initial cost to get in is so much lower than it would be with an EA product. Another option is something like War Thunder where the game is free but you have the option to pay for things or for a subscription that offers ways to avoid the pain of the grind. Imo those two while still being somewhat predatory are far better than having microtransactions and gambling on a full price game.

And while I agree that long term use of a singular solid game engine is preferable the games you reference showcasing that are rather simplistic in their scope. Now if they were doing all of the things they offer on top of an engine like BeamNG.drive it would be a bit different as that engine is running a lot more physics elements in real time where most driving/racing sims have a lot of physics actions pre programmed and almost set in a deterministic way. Not exactly like trackmania where the exact same inputs will get the same result 100% of the time but more similar to that than BeamNG imo. The other challenge with the same engine year after year is when you eventually add a feature that breaks something old in the code that ends up requiring a major rewrite.

Another problem that I think we see is every game engine is designed around movement on foot and/or in a vehicle. None are really dedicated to skating which brings additional challenges to the programming side of things as you now have to create that functionality from scratch instead of just slight modifications to get the movement you want.

I know there's a guy working on modding NHL 2k8 or something to feel more modern and realistic but something more interesting would be someone making just the shell of a game focusing purely on the on ice gameplay and nothing else initially. Just 10 skaters and 2 goalies and just focus on making that feel pristine. However that goes back to my initial issue of no one wants to take the financial risk of doing that. maybe someone will make something like a jet set type game where it's not a sports title but has a lot of similar skating mechanics and then that engine can be utilized for a sim style hockey game. Maybe that is the play for getting a proper pure skating based game engine developed, but idk. I know nothing of how programming works but I have seen some crazy stuff like people adding flyable helicopters and drivable tanks into Escape from Tarkov. So maybe what I am saying is completely pointless.