Won't be coming to PC
very disappoited.
Forum Discussion
162 Replies
EA_AljoCommunity Manager
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.
- FIFA now EA FC sells over 10mil copies a year.
NHL at it's best probably sold 2mil
Simply just porting the game to PC isn't that easy. Look at the trainwreck that was Last of Us for PC and so many others that were terrible. And I believe they would need to work out another deal with the real NHL/NHLPA and others to create a game on PC for licensing reasons. Which means more investment money wise from EA.
@EA_Aljo Plus the number of sales might not even be that big of an increase. As I would swap from console to PC that means it's not a new sale just a continued one overall. - @MlecznyDuet I've said it so many times already. They don't get the money from HUT sales. They are given a budget based on sold copies by "x" they predict. That Ultimate Team money goes into things like marketing, creating new games, and most of all investors.
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.
One of my irritant is not being able to see where the profits go from the nhl game. EA reselling the same game each year, at triple A price, with the equivalent of a small expansion worth of content AND making a killing taking advantage of people with impulsive disorders in HUT mtx....
Where does that money go? My guess is in other products instead of back into its own product. If there was a desire to grow the population of the game, they could invest in it. But i dont see any sort of solid investment back in the product. Investment would be moving to pc, or adding more servers, or adding more yearly support/ patches to balance gameplay with meaningful changes..not just tuner adjustments.
- EA_Aljo
This game isn't exactly cheap to make. While you didn't see a lot of changes for 23, that's not the case for 24. I know people assume there's a skeleton crew of people making this game. In actuality, there's a pretty big team across various departments. Not to mention the cost of licensing, servers and supporting the game in general. Whatever idea you have in mind for that, it's far higher. This game isn't the copy and paste you all like to think it is.
- @EA_Aljo I totally always imagined a skeleton crew but perhaps what i see as skeleton crew you see as large team but in essence i imagine maybe 20 devs and 60 marketing folks 🙂 jk on marketing ppl.
But i get the licensing is likely gross but this was all there before hut and the money that brings in. Hopefully those revenues are injected back in the game.
Id love to see attempts at growing the products...more year long support, events and reach to other platforms.
Ill say one thing, many people cannot afford to buy a new console just to play one game like i do...and those ppl just dont play nhl as a result. Im not sure what sort of research can account for that group. @kezz123 What is wild to me is I haven't played this series since NHL 14 and I am still seeing many of the same animations still being used and for the most part the game looks exactly the same. In ten years there's been minimal change, and seeing people still mentioning how little the game changes year to year makes me laff.
It feels like it's tied to the idea of games as a live service instead of buy it and own it and see it supported for years to come. I know sportsball games will never move away from that but that is why PC is gaining in popularity lately.I also find it hilarious that these guys are still using the "We can't optimize the game for the endless hardware options of PC." While every other PC dev has figured out how to do it, 10 years on and EA still hasn't figured out how to optimize a game for PC hardware.
As for what you said about affording a console, honestly anyone who owns a gaming PC in 2023 has zero reason to even buy a console. Their PC can do anything the console can plus all of the things only a PC can do. Even to the point of "I just want to sit back and play games on my couch." PCs now can stream games to TVs and such well enough that there really is no reason to own a console if you already have a PC. I know people who don't own a computer who have consoles and we play the few cross-platform games we can but I'm always urging them to just make the jump.
Anyway I'm sure Andy Wilson could afford spare a few pence to fund a PC release of NHL.
Featured Places
