17th year without a PC release
Yep, preorder site only shows PlayStation and Xbox. Huge let down EA, again.
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I don't think it would cost millions dude, its built on frostbite its not like they have to build a whole new engine just to put it on PC, frostbite is literally designed for cross platform play across literally every popular system. Do you honestly think it would cost them that much to make a PC version? I mean if you think about it too, all these games are designed on PC, im sure they already have some sort of framework for NHL on PC for the devs to test stuff on without needing a console.
Sony revealed that their AAA ports cost 1-2 millions only to port to PC. Some games only 500k. It's nothing. Some people are living in their bubble which is frozen in time somewhere in mid 2000's. PC is the biggest market and every company realized that and trying their best to use the opportunity. Literally nobody except nintendo (for obvious reasons) wants console exclusives anymore. Besides we have an example and EA is still doing it. NFL only sold ~150k copies on steam. And it's still profitable. NHL wouldn't sell less since there's interest in it in multiple countries and regions.
"Porting the game would cost pennies"
Are you a developer and can explain how porting over everything and then also having the maintenance behind specifically PC related issues would cost pennies?
"The market is bigger than NFL"
"No one outside USA cares about NFL"
"NHL wouldn't sell less since there's interest in it in multiple countries and regions.
AND YET the viewership numbers say that they aren't even close to being in the same league as NHL...
Avg viewers NHL :
2020: 391K / 2021: 467K / 2022: 465K / 2023: 504KAvg Viewers NFL:
2020: 15.4M / 2021: 17.1M / 2022: 16.7M / 2023 17.9M"but even if it can only generate 50mil/year it would be a huge win."
NHL will NOT generate 50mil/year extra by being on PC....
Using the Boxleiter method to calculate sales4000 reviews on Madden 25, means roughly speaking 160,000 sales okay:
160,000 x $70 = $11.2M in sales and this is before thinking about anything like the cost to Steams/refunds and chargebacks that people do on games on PC/taxes in general etc. So NOWHERE NEAR THE 50M you think they would be getting.
If you can't do math then just don't.
Porting is cheap. That's a fact. Console exclusives being ported to PC even when they sell 20k copies. And there's a reason why everyone is doing that.
Ice hockey is more popular than NFL. Check your facts before spreading misinformation. Football is number one hands down, followed by basketball, tennis, cricket and ice hockey. American football is one of the least popular sports.
You forget that every game is filled with mtx. Do you think NBA makes a billion just from sales? And this proves your logic is flawed. NBA is profitable on all platforms yet there's no NBA live anymore but for some reason there's the least popular sports game on earth - NFL.
You also keep contradicting yourself so maybe stop? You calculate sales numbers for NFL and clearly see it's on PC which means it's worth it to port even if i sells badly. If porting as you imply would be too expensive than no one would bother with poriting games which doesn't sell at least 500k copies. It doesn't matter how much they would get on top - 50m or 1m, it's still a profit with nothing to lose.
And NHL is ice hockey, it's a worldwide sports while NFL is exclusive to one country. NHL would be more popular outside USA while NFL sells great on consoles because americans prefer consoles.
NHL NEVER was a huge money maker and that's why it needs to be ported to PC - to increase the profits. Otherwise it's counting its last years as a franchise.
Even PGA is on PC. 2K will just snatch NHL too and it will be on PC eventually just like it happened with NBA because EA refused to release it on PC. PC is the main market these days.
Did I not just do the math right in front of you? Did you want me to go further? SURE
Take that 11.2 million and take 30% of that to give to Steam/Valve for use of their product. Leaves you with 7.8M
Take approx 10% for refunds and chargebacks and it leaves you with just over 7 million.
Another 10% lets say for taxes and what not. Now it's 6.3 million.
So now you only have just over 6 million in revenue that you need to pay out to new developers/testers/support team/servers/new license with NHL specific to PC etc. Those guys also need to now work with the current team to get things up and running smoothly. Do you really think after all of this They really are making anything out of it? You say does it matter if they only make 1m because its a profit with nothing to lose? Yes that matters. Profit margins are very important for a business and there is something to lose in the quality of the product that is designed for the current platforms.
Look I'd love for it to be on PC as I know I have buddies that no longer play the game because they are PC people and don't want to spend for a console to play one franchise game that's only on console and I get that. The reality is it is not worth it or in there best interest. As I have said in the past, I am sure there are people who are being paid much larger amounts of money to do this extensive research and much more complex math to see if there is value to it being ported to PC than the basic free research and Math I am doing. That's the big key though is there has to not just be profits but enough profits or value to make that next leap forward, otherwise is it even worth it?
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