Is the PC Community being Ignored By EA?

hiperay wrote:

I am sure they have plenty of people whoa are paid a lot of money to look at the data and see if it is worth it or not.

At the end of the day, this is just it. No amount of petitions or ChatGPT generated rebuttals will change anything. The ROI isn't there and the recent Madden and FC releases on PC just drive that point home even harder.

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.

What data? They don’t survey. 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. 

In my years of wanting a PC release I’ve never once seen EA officially survey the public in support of a PC release, and I think this should be EAs next step with this problem.

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.

younever_know8 wrote:

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.

younever_know8 wrote:

 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?

younever_know8 wrote:

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.

younever_know8 wrote:

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.

titus1029 wrote:

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. 

Tired of hearing that NHL isn’t on PC because it’s not worth the investment. The last NHL game was NHL 09 which was a PS2 port 4 years into the PS3/360 era. 

it’s not a hard concept….drop the game make it current gen on-par with PS5 and Series X. And give us gm connected I’m  110% never buying another NHL game until a PC version drops. I’m done. EA is so tone def.

Sure it’s not as easy as hitting a button to drop…..but it certainly isn’t as complicated as you guys make it sound. The assets are already made….indie developers drop pc ports on way smaller scale of games.

the real problem is EA doesn’t give NHL dev team much of a budget and has cut their dev team. It’s why basic features like GM connected are still missing and why CHEL has the same intro video for the 3rd or 4th year. 

The game is slowly dieing on console. I’ve spent 40 minutes qued at times for a 6v6 game of drop in. Then majority of players have moved on to PC. If EA cared at all they should atleast put out a variety of surveys to ask the playerbase and EA players of other games if they would purchase NHL on PC. 

P.S. I hope y’all lose the Madden license this year! 

KidShowtime1867​ 

Alright, let's do this properly — line by line.
You tried to talk down like you’re some informed analyst, but all you’ve done is confirm you don’t know what you’re talking about. So here we go:

    “Clicking 'Submit' takes so little effort and online petitions are always filled with bots.”

If you genuinely believe 8,000 people signing a platform-specific petition in 2018 — with zero marketing and no in-game visibility — is “just bots,” then you’re either delusional or so desperate to dismiss community support that you’ll say anything.

Prove it. Show one credible source that confirms this petition was flooded with bots. You can’t. You just threw that out to kill the discussion — because the petition doesn’t fit your narrative.

    “How does releasing Madden and FC on PC equate to EA 'pretending the PC community doesn't exist'?”

You conveniently skipped the part where I said EA pretends the NHL PC community doesn’t exist.
Not PC in general.
Not FC. Not Apex. Not Madden.
The NHL PC audience — the one asking, petitioning, tweeting, and getting radio silence in return for years.

Releasing a global juggernaut like FC on PC isn’t "listening" to niche sports fans. It’s just basic corporate sense.
Your argument here is completely off-target.

    “EA isn’t beholden to respond to online petitions.”

Never said they were.
But when a company completely ignores a multi-thousand signature petition related to one of their own franchises — while giving yearly ports to another sport that underperforms — it shows where their priorities are.

It’s not about being “beholden.” It’s about acknowledgment.
And NHL on PC never even got that.

    “Releasing on PC isn’t easy. You guys think it’s just clicking 'release to Steam'.”

No one thinks it’s that simple — that’s your strawman because you’ve run out of arguments.

What people are saying is: EA already has the infrastructure in place.
They already run Madden on PC.
They already port Frostbite games.
They already handle anti-cheat, support, and patches across multiple PC titles.

You’re acting like they’d be starting from scratch — they wouldn’t.
They’d be porting a game built in an engine they already use across platforms.

So if they can do it for Madden, with worse performance, and keep doing it year after year — why not NHL?

    “Nobody is disputing that people care about a PC version.”

Then what are we arguing about?

Oh right — you are disputing it. Because just two lines earlier, you said the petition was full of bots and meaningless. Now you’re admitting people care.

So which is it?

    “Madden only peaked at ~6K, that’s abysmal. It makes zero sense to fire up a PC version of NHL when you look at those numbers.”

You just nuked your entire position.

You’re admitting that Madden performs poorly on PC.
Yet EA continues to invest in it, year after year.

So here’s the question:
Why does Madden deserve continued support with abysmal stats — but NHL doesn’t even deserve a single shot?

You cannot defend both. Either:

    You cancel Madden and don’t port NHL, or

    You at least test NHL and see what happens.

Right now EA is rewarding one failing product and ignoring the other entirely. And you’re applauding that.

    “This AI-generated post is hilarious.”

If something written by AI using actual data, proper structure, and logical consistency is “hilarious” to you — while your reply is full of contradictions and emotional backpedaling — I’ll take that as a compliment.

Also, let me guess — you didn’t even bother to check the SteamDB links for yourself?

Because if you had, you’d see I didn’t make those numbers up. They’re public.
If you’re too lazy to open a browser and type “Madden NFL 25 SteamDB” — that’s not an AI problem.
That’s a you problem.

And yeah — English isn’t my first language. So I used a tool to help structure my post.
What does that change?
The numbers are still accurate. The logic still holds.
If your only comeback is “lol AI,” then you’re not here to argue — you’re here to deflect.

Go ahead, keep defending the excuse.

EA_Aljo​ 

That’s understandable — no one should have to deal with abuse, especially when they’re trying to engage with the community. But let’s not pretend that this is the full story.

One bad experience several years ago shouldn’t be the end of all direct communication forever. Especially when entire platforms (like PC and Switch) are left without representation or answers.

Most people here — myself included — just want clarity. We're not asking for daily replies from the lead gameplay engineer. We're asking for someone from the team to show up occasionally, acknowledge real concerns, and explain decisions without us having to guess through second-hand PR filters.

Right now, we’re told:

•     “Trust the data” — but we never see it.
•     “The devs read everything” — but they never respond.
•     “The door isn’t closed” — but it’s been locked for 17 years.

If a community is only allowed to submit feedback into a void, with no expectation of reply, eventually people stop bothering. And that’s not because they’re rude — it’s because they feel ignored.

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.