Urgent Need to Address Menu Lag in NHL 25 and beyond.
Dear EA Sports Team,
As a long-time fan of the NHL franchise, I want to begin by commending your efforts to deliver a fresh experience with NHL 25. However, like many players in the community, I’ve been frustrated by the persistent lag and sluggishness in the menu system
The Problem
Navigating the menus has become a tedious experience due to:
1.Slow Response Times: Whether I’m accessing the auction house, building my lineup, or navigating through event rewards, menus frequently lag or take several seconds to respond to inputs.
2.Unnecessary Delays: Animations, loading screens, and data fetching often make even simple tasks feel unnecessarily drawn out.
3.Performance Issues Across Platforms: While this problem is particularly noticeable on last-gen consoles (PS4/Xbox One), even current-gen platforms struggle, making it clear that the issue is systemic.
Why This Matters
Hockey Ultimate Team is a flagship mode for NHL 25. Its success depends on smooth, enjoyable user interaction. When basic navigation feels frustrating, it detracts from the overall experience and diminishes the fun of building and managing a team. For a mode that thrives on engagement, menu lag can lead to player burnout and a decrease in overall satisfaction.
Potential Causes: While we, as players, don’t have access to the underlying systems, it seems like:
- Server-side dependency issues might be causing excessive load times when fetching data (e.g., auction house updates).
- Poor optimization of menu assets, animations, or database calls could be adding unnecessary strain on the system.
- Outdated frameworks or “spaghetti code” may be contributing to the sluggish performance.
Constructive Suggestions for Improvement
Here are a few ideas the development team might consider to help resolve these issues:
1.Optimize Client-Side Performance: Streamline UI assets and animations and implement lazy-loading for non-essential elements to reduce strain on hardware.
2.Enhance Server Efficiency: Use caching and batching to reduce the frequency of server calls for repetitive data (e.g., frequently accessed items in the auction house).
3.Increase Transparency: Keep the community updated with detailed notes on performance improvements in patches. Acknowledging and addressing the issue directly will build trust with the player base.
4.Focus on Testing and QA: Stress-test the system under heavy load to ensure it performs well during peak times.
A Call to Action
The NHL community deeply values this franchise, and we want to see it succeed. Addressing these menu issues isn’t just about improving functionality—it’s about respecting the time and investment of the players who support this series year after year.
We hope to see this issue elevated to a top priority and addressed in upcoming patches. Thank you for taking the time to listen to our feedback, and we look forward to seeing improvements that will make NHL 25 even better.
Sincerely,
Fan since NHL94
