17th year without a PC release

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........

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.

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? 

Hi, will there be NHL 26 on PC?

Edit: Merged this message with the already existing thread on this issue. -CM

The viewership of NFL and the actual amount of players on madden NFL are two completely different things and the only direct correlation is that they both are for the NFL, the overall viewership of the NFL does not reflect how many people will play madden on PC and if you think you can make a accurate number out of that then you are obviously high. By doing it that way you deal in probability not certainty, although nothing will be absolute certainty, a survey would be more accurate. Like many want is an official EA poll or survey directly for releasing NHL on PC, a way to voice their concerns or opinions in a way that actually matters and will be used in a decision. That way they can obtain the numbers and determine cost and if it would turn a profit. 

But the facts are simple, thousands of people have wanted NHL to come to PC, enough that roughly 8700 people went out of their way to sign an unofficial, unannounced petition, those are just the people that went out of their way to look for a petition, there are countless others who lost hope in voicing their opinion or their want for NHL to return to PC because EA never publicly addressed the issue and more.

Let’s also not forget that the NHL has an international market as nearly 30% of the players are from outside of North America and roughly 10-12 different countries have Olympic ice hockey teams, IIHF has 84 member countries, whereas the NFL isn’t exactly associated with the olympics at all, being so the closest thing to it is “5v5 flag football” in the Olympics instead of the NFLs 11v11 full contact. In a North American market the NFL will dominate but internationally hockey is wildly more known and popular. I’ll also say this because the EA game doesn’t just include NHL teams but also includes teams on the IIHF level and lower international leagues.

As I mentioned before, NHL is built on frostbite, frostbite 3.0 to be specific which is tailored for cross-platform play including windows, switch, Xbox and PlayStation which makes a port to windows much easier and cheaper than a game that isn’t designed for windows OS at all, I’m not saying it would be free of charge or a “push of a button”, I’d say the bigger question is how much it would cost to modify an anti-cheat used on FC or NFL to protect PC players on NHL, as well as if they want to allow or disallow mods, and before anyone says anything, cheating and modding are two completely different things. I also mentioned that literally every game in modern day is designed using a PC and it is highly more than likely that a PC version of NHL exists for the NHL developers. You can research this for yourself, I’d be willing to bet you would arrive at the same conclusion that a development version already exists on PC given modern development standards.

Additionally NHL is filled with micro transactions, if the estimated profit from game sales alone is low, EA will definitely earn the profits from their micro transactions. Hell even sales may not even be bad, I’ve asked a few friends if they’d buy both a PC version and console version and they said yes, one would be for offline typically for on the road or for any case where they could bring their console but not their PC. I’m not saying this is the case for everyone but there will be people that would do this, possibly myself included if I find myself in that position. But it’s obvious there is a lot of profit earned off of micro transactions and this isn’t specific to EA, most games that offer this typically earn a big buck. Who knows, maybe EA would earn even more on micro transactions if people didn’t need to spend money on subscriptions to play online either?

Overall I’d say the minimum EA should give the PC community is an official survey that is properly advertised so it reaches most potential customers, even some publicity would be earned from smaller news companies which would cover such a thing as each year you can find articles from various independent companies about how NHL isn’t coming to PC or articles that underscore this. This way EA can obtain actual feedback directly related to the release of a PC version and their people who “run the numbers” can actually accurately determine if it is feasible and would result in a profit.

If EA actually conducts a survey directly for this and the result turns out to be against the release, genuinely I would respect and live with the decision if it’s based on actual data that is accurate and collected from the community and potential customers for NHL, not some survey that collects information for every EA game. I may disagree with it if that happens but we would have an official decision based on the communities wants.

Tbh nothing compares to a pc, just out of sheer performance, a moderate PC build in modern day will outperform the latest generation of consoles, next gen may eventually become equivalent but within a years time of its release, intel, nvidia and amd would make it obsolete.

Looking at the PS6 leaks and I gotta say it’s a high end PC at the moment. I would imagine a  PC version isn’t to far away as in all honesty I think it sounds like PS6 will be more powerful than most people’s PCs. Would just be an operating system issue at that point

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?