EA_Aljo
Community Manager
Community ManagerNHL 25 Holiday Update Coming Nov 15th
Forum Discussion
With all due respect and as much as we appreciate Updates and new stuff (thanks). We also very much appreciate if the dev team(s) prioritize to fix the very annoying issues (AI, Matchmaking, etc.)!! Focus on those - because time is ticking, soon they will start to get into NHL 26 and we are still dealing with the same issues in NHL 25, and then you say „oh we have to wait for the new game to get those issues fixed.“
Coming from someone who has absolutely conquered/decimated Arcade and things like Eliminator to dust over the years, I can't help but think this wasn't the best choice to make (especially with 25's current poor reception). I really feel like the team should have focused more on QoL and bug fixes than semi-reintroducing this mode back to the fold (if it is anything like 3on3)
Yeah, 4 patches/updates in, looking to be 5 and STILL no "Match Club Size"...EA is literally not engaging in any of those threads, once again burying their heads in the same.
- EA_Aljo
I have said numerous times that we'll make an announcement when we have some news.
(especially with 25's current poor reception).
Every NHL series gets a "poor reception" from the sweat community. I've seen a LOT of positives in social media chatter about this game and the negatives seem to hone in on matchmaking (which agreed, is an issue) and other issues that relate more to skill than a core gameplay problem.
I really feel like the team should have focused more on QoL and bug fixes than semi-reintroducing this mode back to the fold (if it is anything like 3on3)
Agreed.
Cool, but what about what people are ACTUALLY asking for? Match Club Size for WoC match making?
Adding new ways to play while leaving the old ones a bit of a mess is kind of confusing, but alright.
- EA_Aljo
You all are acting as if we just threw this together in the last few weeks instead of work on ongoing issues. That's not the case at all. This release did not interfere with post launch support.
This release did not interfere with post launch support.
Then can you explain why there's been zero engagement on the "Match Club Size" issue? This is the thing people have been asking since launch when it was first noticed.
A "new", old way to play NHL arcade lol . NHL arcade really made it back before gm connected or matchmaking settings in eashl. Gotta love it
Why fix the game and make it enjoyable when you can add to the chaos.
How can they fix the game if they don't have resources? All the resources are going to this holiday update. You don't understand how hard it is to implement something back in that's worked the last 5 NHL games. It's super hard and super resource intensive. That's what the super talented dev team keeps telling us
- EA_Aljo
This update wasn't just whipped up today. It's been in the works for a long time. Well before the issues with matchmaking. Which is a completely separate issue.
While GM Connected had a passionate fanbase, it was a small one. The focus has obviously been on online modes as well as Franchise Mode so we can better support the most popular areas of the game. As we have said many times, there is interest in bringing this mode back. We'll have to wait for a future version of the game before that happens.
Can you point to data or anything relavant to point towards the community requesting the return of NHL arcade? Sure it was a fun mode a decade ago, but I HAVE to imagine that player base was even smaller then GM connected. Not to mention GM connected got about 2 years to grow, before it was scrapped when moving on to NHL 15. If you gave HUT a 2 year lifespan, it would have had a small community. And like the community has repeatedly relayed for over a decade. The primary reason gm connected failed was due to extremely slow and buggy simulation time frames. I don't get how the other EA titles have implemented this in other games, but NHL fails to do so.
The bottom line is "new" features should not be released until people who paid full price of the game can play it as expected. Matchmaking isn't a maybe, it's a don't do it and watch your WOC fanbases crumble. Eventually WOC will be the new GM connected that gets removed and we will hear the "small player base" excuse while ignoring the issues the plagued the mode
Releasing this right now feels a little tone deaf. The game is currently in a pretty bad state when it comes to bugs. Not nearly in a good enough state for a 70 dollar game from a billion dollar company. Gotta make the base game work before you add anything extra.
Matchmaking still being broken is inexcusable, the game should not have launched with it being this bad.
No match club size STILL. This one hurts more considering it was literally removed from the game. 24 had it already.
The AI marketing still feels like false advertising with how the AI plays. No noticable big changes.
The menu's are still pretty bad and the WOC shop is broken
I'm not even going to get started with be a pro.
When will we see the base game get major issues addressed? I don't want to play with big heads until the rest of the game works!
- EA_Aljo
What size club are you playing with and how often are you getting lopsided results? Meaning, you're in a 6s club, but getting matched with 2s, 3s, 4s, no goalie, etc. We need better details on exactly what is happening with matchmaking because our data is showing otherwise. It's showing a healthy amount of 6s matches connecting. If this has to do with matches that have less than 6, that's something we need to investigate.
How are the menus bad and how is the shop broken? Menus are quite quick for me. I haven't used the shop much, but when I have, there haven't been any issues. So, it would be good to find out what is breaking with them for you.
You're more than welcome to detail the bugs you've found. I report those directly to the team. They need to include video or screenshots as well.
We never said matching team size was returning. It would be great if it did. I truly do not know if that's going to happen though. I'm trying to get some messaging to better explain the changes.AI aren't meant to play perfect all the time. They will be improved. However, they also react to how the humans are playing. And with so many human players playing wildly out of position, it means the AI are going to be out of position as well. They move around to cover the open ice. So, when a player abandons their position, the AI scramble to make up for it. I play RD. Pretty much exclusively. I'm good about remaining in position and find that my AI D partner does a pretty competent job. Especially when I set the D to high pressure. That way, they aren't so passive. If you get video of the AI issues, I'll send it over to the team. Just saying AI bad. Fix it. Isn't going to help.
We have been releasing patches with the intent to fix various issues. The update last week was a big one. We'll have to wait and see what the next patch handles. However, if there are major changes to matchmaking, that's most likely not going to be in the next patch.
Yeah, same for me. The menus are slow and so is browsing the shop. I hope the button to search for players in your Area Yes/No will be back asap.
I welcome the PWHL and 4 Nations but I totally agree, fix the tech issues before these new modes and additions get the same annoyances as the other modes...
So once again, there's going to be an update during the most popular game time in Europe on the busiest day of the week. And to top it off, the update will probably be massive and include features that almost no one uses. Slow internet connections will be grateful once again for ruining another game night.
This update will not help in anyway fixing the serious issues and bugs this game has, on the contrary. So thanks, but no thanks.
