Is the PC Community being Ignored By EA?
Every year the amount of people who want NHL on PC grows and every year its disappointment. Is the PC Community being Ignored By EA? as a person who moved fully to PC this year and as part of the PC ...
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Thanks for proving the point — that petition from 2018, with zero support from EA, no marketing, and no visibility across official channels, still got over 8,000 signatures.
That’s 8,000 people who cared enough to act, in a time when EA was doing everything possible to pretend the PC community didn’t exist.
And what did EA do?
Nothing.
Literally nothing.
The petition itself even says: "Decision Maker: Electronic Arts – Awaiting response."
Seven years later — still waiting.
Imagine if EA had actually:
- acknowledged it publicly
- shared it on their channels
- ran a limited PC test
- or just asked the player base via in-game surveys
Instead, they ignored it completely — and now people throw this petition around as if it somehow proves "no one cares."
No. It proves that people cared.
EA didn’t.
Thanks again for making that even clearer.
Thanks Denchiks37 . Your posts are very well-written and articulate the points very accurately as I see things as well. I would prefer to have an open discussion with some of the developers themselves to see their input on this. I would also like some transparency between the market analysts and shareholders to see if there is even a discussion that happens about what platforms these games go on? I would assume shareholders are likely just not AWARE of the markets on PC or Switch when it comes to these games, if they knew the PC platform was nearly as large as the entire console market combined, would they push and advocate for a PC release for NHL and UFC? Do these discussions even occur?
It's deeply disappointing to see that no matter how much we try, we are basically blockaded by a company who only puts forth the minimum amount of effort to keep communications through a community mod. And I don't mean any offense to folks like EA_Aljo who I'm sure is only the doing the best they can to answer questions everyday. There were rumors about a discord last year which never materialized, I would like something like that though to be able to actually communicate with the devs themselves.
EA_AljoCommunity Manager
There was a dev that participated heavily here several years back. They spent a lot of time breaking down gameplay and going into great detail on mechanics. A lot of people appreciated it and let them know. While many others were really rude, accused them and accused them of lying. So, while I would love more developer involvement, they're probably better off reading feedback and using that to help shape the game. Spending a lot of time responding when it isn't appreciated just takes away from working on the game.
Thanks Denchiks37 . Your posts are very well-written and articulate the points very accurately as I see things as well.
The problem is that the post points out bad Madden sales and then goes on to say "No NHL on PC makes No sense".
Please make that make sense.
I would also like some transparency between the market analysts and shareholders to see if there is even a discussion that happens about what platforms these games go on?
Why should EA ask their market analysis team to justify the non-release of an NHL PC game to PC Gamers?
I would assume shareholders are likely just not AWARE of the markets on PC or Switch when it comes to these games, if they knew the PC platform was nearly as large as the entire console market combined, would they push and advocate for a PC release for NHL and UFC?
Madden and EA FC have both released in the PC market in recent years with not-so-great results. Why would EA make the insane decision to launch an NHL PC title in the face of poor sales for a much larger franchise in Madden? It makes no sense.
I would like something like that though to be able to actually communicate with the devs themselves.
Too many reactionary cynics with insanely high Hockey IQ's destroyed any chance we had with having large discussions with actual developers and engineers. There are too many people in the NHL community who "know better" than anyone currently involved in the development of the NHL series. They don't appreciate the nuance and detail that previous producers would give to us and instead decided to argue against everything and it just killed the vibe.
If EA actually pushed out a proper survey, announced it here, on social media and in game so everyone can see it, then they’d actually collect everyone’s feedback so they can figure out if it is worth it.
EA puts out survey's every year asking customers what platforms they primarily game on.
Comparing two completely different sports and then using the sales performance of one to justify never releasing the other is completely flawed logic.
Madden and NHL are not interchangeable. They have different audiences, different regional strengths, and completely different engagement patterns. Just because Madden underperforms on PC does not automatically mean NHL would do the same. That’s like saying "Baseball games don’t sell well, so basketball games shouldn’t be released either."
One sport's weak numbers are not a universal market signal.
They’re simply a reflection of that franchise, and in Madden’s case, the decline is arguably EA’s own doing — from years of neglected PC versions and feature-limited ports.Meanwhile, NHL has never even been given a proper shot. No test release. No demo. No modern PC version — for 17 years. There is zero data to support the idea that “NHL would fail too.” All that exists is assumption, built on the performance of a completely different product.
That’s not business logic. That’s just lazy thinking.
Please stop with the GPT responses. They're nonsensical and you're just copying what people say and asking GPT for a response.
Your one post showed that GPT was trying to tell you Madden sales were bad on PC, so you just instructed it to say that NHL not being on PC made no sense.
So the logic is - Madden (biggest NA sports franchise) had poor sales on PC, therefore, NHL not being on PC makes no sense.
Please - make that make sense.
EA puts out survey's every year asking customers what platforms they primarily game on.
Those surveys are unspecific to NHL, a survey tailored directly for the PC release of an NHL game would provide the accurate data they need. Asking "what platforms do you primarily game on" and "would you be interested in playing NHL on PC" are two completely different things and you cannot extract data from the surveys you are referencing and claim it as insufficient data to support a PC release because its not asking that question, its asking where do you primarily play.
No it really wouldn't because it is much easier to click a button saying "I support this thing" vs "I will spend 70USD/100CAD to buy this thing". If you don't think that NFL has a bigger fanbase than the NHL, then you are living a fantasy. Here are the numbers via Sports Business Journal via links for you to see it for yourself but Ill just talk about the most recent data I found for 2020 - 2023:
Avg viewers NHL : NHL
2020: 391K / 2021: 467K / 2022: 465K / 2023: 504KAvg Viewers NFL: NFL
2020: 15.4M / 2021: 17.1M / 2022: 16.7M / 2023 17.9M
And before you make the argument of something like "well there are more games in the NHL then there are in the NFL", I'll say okay.... silly argument but I'll play along. So lets take the NHL numbers and multiply them by 5 (16 games vs 82, im rounding to 80)NHL: 2020: 1.95M / 2021: 2.335M / 2022: 2.325M/ 2023: 2.52M
NFL: 2020: 15.4M / 2021: 17.1M / 2022: 16.7M / 2023 17.9M
Okay that didn't work what about if we take the NFL's numbers and divide them by 5. (Less games attracts more fans to watch theory)
NHL: 2020: 391K / 2021: 467K / 2022: 465K / 2023: 504K
NFL: 2020: 3.08M / 2021: 3.42M / 2022: 3.34M / 2023: 3.58M
So even in the flipped scenario of the NHL having only 16 games and the NFL having 82:
NHL: 2020: 1.95M / 2021: 2.335M / 2022: 2.325M/ 2023: 2.52M
NFL: 2020: 3.08M / 2021: 3.42M / 2022: 3.34M / 2023: 3.58M
THE NFL HAS AT LEAST 30% MORE VIEWERSHIP YOY.
and this is a JOE SCHMOE doing the research for free. Now imagine the people who are getting paid big bucks to do the research on whether or not it is valuable for them to make a PC PORT for NHL when the Madden one has completely flopped?
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