EA_Aljo
Community Manager
Community ManagerNHL 25 Holiday Update Coming Nov 15th
Forum Discussion
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
EA_AljoCommunity Manager
Community ManagerThis 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
Match making should be their number one priority! It boggles my mind how this game goes backwards year after year, rather than progressing.
- EA_Aljo
Releasing this mode has no bearing whatsoever on the current issues with NHL 25. This isn't something we've been working on instead of issues that have come up since launch.
How is matchmaking even a problem? This isn't a "NEW" game. This is just an updated version. There is no way EA sports should be going backwards and not moving forward every year. The game play is better this year, but you have completely messed up so many other parts of the game in doing so. Match making should be your NUMBER ONE PRIORITY!
While GM Connected had a passionate fanbase, it was a small one.
But there's a very specific reason for that; the mode ran like molasses.
It had everything we ever wanted. Hell - it even had the ability to run a full team of 6v6 humans. That means you could play a league game against an opponent using all humans. It had an iOS app that allowed us to make trades, do free agency, schedule, etc.
It was ahead of its time but strangely enough, it was our first glimpse into server capacity issues that still seem to plague EA to this day.
It annoys me greatly when official EA reps say things like 'GM connected had a small fan base' - seemingly pointing the finger at the customer for not caring enough about the mode.
But, the reality is that people loved the mode so much, the server-load was constantly at capacity. This meant only the most ardant users continued to use the mode while mostly everyone else became tired of the constant grind of simply navigating the interface.
- EA_Aljo
This is not a server load capacity issue. Yes, it was a popular mode among a portion of the playerbase. However, when prioritizing what gets work, normally that is the modes with the highest amount of players. Which are typically online modes. We've also put a lot of focus on gameplay as well as Franchise Mode. We absolutely know many of you want GMC to return. It's possible that could happen in the future.
