17th year without a PC release

Here ya go titus1029​ ... a little bit of research later and I found cumulative game sales from back when EA reported this.  Here is one from what people argue was NHL's best game in 15 and then one from the last know reported sales from EA 19. Its night and day of a difference in sales. So again, if Madden is considered to be failing by you and others here, why would they double down on it with NHL? There are the numbers:
Madden 15: 7,377,268 / NHL 15: 1,861,257 / A ratio of 3.96:1

Madden 19: 2,924,069/ NHL 19: 720,328 / A ratio of 4.05:1

I don't think the 19 numbers are complete like the others but the sales rate still stays about the same. So how can you tell me NHL would be more successful on PC than Madden when these are sales ratios between the two? And they are not even close...

Would love a PC release. Tired of paying for PSN network just for this one game. 

I am pretty sure Cricket sells more than NHL.  I hear this game sells like 25K copies a year or something small like that.    We will probably never see it.  

I do hope they release it on the Switch 2 though!

I am still in the belief that Sports fans have a direct correlation to a player base in sports games but if you are really telling me that NHL sells more than Madden then I will tell you that there is no way that is true. I doubt NHL 15 (the best NHL game that's always referenced, doesn't even come CLOSE to Madden in sales. The hierarchy will always be FIFA -> MADDEN -> (F1 maybe) even -> NHL. Its just the sad truth we have to learn to live with.

I'd welcome a PC release and in previous years I've told myself that if it ever happens, and it looks as amazing as it could, I will build myself a new PC which can max it's graphics.

But those thoughts are almost out of the picture now. I don't believe it is coming for PC, of the reasons already mentioned many times in this forum. I understand both those who want it for PC, and EA who doesn't seem to see a need for it.

The argument that is heaviest for me, is that if no other company has tried to make a proper PC game since EA stopped, why suddenly start again? Because thousands of people online are passionate about it? EA doesn't have exclusive rights with the NHL which means anyone (who can afford it) can make a modern NHL game for PC, but no one has tried (as far as I know).

I'm also fairly certain that an annual PC release wouldn't be profitable anymore. People who don't like the next version will just mod the hell out of their NHL XX and manage for many years. And a game with modern graphics would last long. I don't know how close to modern looks people have managed to make NHL 09, but it must have fallen behind a long time ago. Considering what people do visually to games like GTA V and make it look VERY realistic, I'd expect that to happen to an NHL PC game too. Exciting thought, but I don't think EA will be the company that makes the next NHL game for PC (judging by comments in these forums).

If they let the community have access we could eliminate cheats as the arise. I dunno if Madden will be there main focus though. They literally just need to copy the new version of college football (2025) and it will crush. 

Id bet the NFL and Colllege football don’t cover 25% of FIFA though so there is that. Not to mention that the few people that do play NHL and would on PC would stand out if cheating as there would be such a close eye on them (console users and EA themselves). Guessing though if NHL had even 5% of EA sports playerbase id be surprised. 

This I feel comes down to how challenging setting this up would be. I just can’t see it being that rough as it’s only an OS issue. However, my knowledge about it is about as minimal as my knowledge on the pain of childbirth being a male (no offense to anyone).  It sounds quite easy in my head though (not the child birth part) haha. 

Is it an O/S issue? If Xbox leaves the console department when the ps6 comes out is that a far fetched idea or something challenging to do as far as man hours (sorry person hours)?

*don’t know if man hours is the term anymore hehe. No offense intended to anybody

I’m truly surprised that having a PC version isn’t an option. Any programmers out there know why either of the other 2 versions can’t just be switched over easily or is that something that sounds easy in my head but is a lot of work to someone who actually knows? Only more curious now as the articles I’ve read on ps5 and Xbox make it sound like it’s all computer components as it is. Just curious why this is a challenge especially with people no longer even needing hard copies of games anymore. 

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.

People making it seem like EA has to rebuild the game from the ground up to get it to run on PC. 

1. The game is built on PC and ported to Xbox/Playstation
2. The 8000 person survey is almost a decade old survey for people actively asking for a PC release. 
3. Madden on PC just recently got crossplay on a true next gen on PC after rough sales without these features. Madden as a whole has been in decline due to stagnant development over the years.
4.  The true cost to port NHL to PC is in servers not development. 

Most game engines i.e. Unreal Engine have the ability to compile and test a game within engine. It's a feature that's been in Game Engines for decades. I believe Unreal Engine 3 had this. I know for sure Unreal Engine 4 has this. Hell even the free to use Unity has this ability. Frostbite 100% has this ability in 2025 which means the game is already playable on PC via the dev team in engine. To go further.....most engines have the ability to port games at the click of a button to a platform and game engines attempt to compile the game for the targeted device. That being said it's not a perfect system and does require some work in code, optimization. This is light work for a dev team were talking a few weeks of work at most a month. This is how indie games get there games ported to PC/Xbox/Playstation/Switch. 

At time of writing:

Madden 24 on PC has 143 concurrent players on a Tuesday at 1pm EST. Sold 283K Copies

Madden 25 on PC has 718 concurrent players on a Tuesday at 1pm EST Sold like crap because was same game. 

Madden 26 isn't disclosing concurrent players on Steam charts due to being in Early Access. 

This is just on Steam.....

Hockey is more popular as a global sport then Football. If they added in the KHL and European leagues to the game this game could outsell Madden as it can reach many more markets. Heck rebrand the game.....EA Sports Ice Hockey (Insert Year). This would have been the perfect year to do this change due to the winter olympics and olympic break in the NHL schedule

To be successful on PC NHL needs to do this:

• KHL/Euro leagues added along with transfer portal for NHL/KHL/Euro leagues implemented into Franchise/Be A Pro
• Release the same game as Xbox/Playstation with crossplay. No compromises.

NHL has been declining in sales for years. I've waited in World of Chel Matchaking for 10+ minutes only to have to research. At times it has taken me up to 30 minutes looking for a game. The NHL game as a model needs an overhaul. EA should hedge their bets and make this a global ice hockey release that could perform closer to FIFA in sales (will still lag behind FIFA in sales) but certainly beat out Madden's annual sales and concurrent players. 

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk........