17th year without a PC release

Yep, preorder site only shows PlayStation and Xbox. Huge let down EA, again.

discussion

feedback

henryclay1844

New Adventurer

4 months ago

If PC ports cost so much and EA just can't afford it why does Big Ant release its Austrialian sports games for both PC and consol when they are selling much smaller numbers to a smaller audience?

EA_Aljo
Community Manager
4 months ago
I'm not familiar with their games so I don't know what all is involved. For NHL, porting isn't so much the issue. Obviously, that can be done. There is so much more that goes into it. Anti-cheat, additional servers, support staff, licensing, adding developers to support PC and console updates, etc. I get that people think we can just copy and paste the game to PCs, but that's extremely far from the reality of a project of this size.
- CaptainFacial69
  Rising Rookie
  4 months ago
  Theres not much more that goes into it........
  Anti-Cheat just license Easy-Anti Cheat from Epic EA has used it in the past.
  Servers can be shared across platforms
  Support staff (it's one support staff for all of EA)
  Licensing is such a broad term......Are we talking about licensing for platforms? If so EA has their own app/has a Steam and Epic license to release games. They also have the license for NHL/NHLPA.
  The impact to dev staff to support PC is minimal....Maybe they add a body or two to assist annually but this isn't much in terms of cost.
  
  EA should hedge their bets on Ice Hockey. They have the license for NHL. Hockey is much bigger then the NHL globally and has support around the world with an estimated fan base of 2.5 billion vs American Football's 410 million. The real question should be why is NHL series declining in sales year over year with the 3rd most popular sports fan base in the world while telling fans of the game that the sport isn't popular enough to sell well on PC. Well because your targeting one specific league that ranks 4th in it's predominate country.
  Rebrand the game EA Sports Ice Hockey 27/28. Add European leagues/KHL etc. into the game. Drafted a KHL player in franchise mode? You're not getting them for a few years. Have a player on your KHL team that just got drafted into the NHL under contract....negotiate with the NHL club for release of rights.
  Have a Be a Pro in the MHL/KHL growth path/Full seasons in European mens leagues prior to being drafted. Bring back the AHL and being sent down. Add olympic games into Franchise/Be A Pro and make moral decisions based on if you'll let them participate. Won GM of the year the year prior? Your now putting the team together for Nation of your choice to compete in the olympics.
  EA won't do it because they prefer to copy and paste the game year over year with a new cover athlete, a few new animations and marketing campaign that sells minor animation updates like "Dynamic Goalie Movement " "Dynamic Hitting" blah blah blah.......when in fact the AI will act the same as it has since NHL 20. It comes down to EA is comfortable releasing the same game and making a few million with the NHL series vs having a game that could and should be on par with FIFA sales wise.