18th year without a PC release - NHL 27

How do you know? Honestly.   I have at least 10 pc friends who would rage buy NHL on PC but have never been asked or polled or whatever about it.  Haven’t given thought to a console because we aren’t 13.  But would insta buy NHL on Pc.  I’m really curious how market research goes on a segment untouched for 2 decades. Honestly.  

Bring NHL to PC!!!! Then I will start buying it every year 

There is end to this console only games likely EA NHL and MLB The Show. It is called: XBox Helix. My understanding is that this will be a pc compatible device and therefore, games developed for it should work on a pc. Since EA will have NHL come out on the XBox Helix [whenever this console comes out], it will also work on the pc. 

So another year and no NHL on PC. These companies are so weird sometimes. You think they should love money but say no to money at the same time. NFL is on PC even though it's the least popular sports game probably. But NHL loved around the world can't get a 2 million funding for a port which would pay off in a week. Seriously you cancelled NBA when it's making billions each for 2K and you just want to completely discontinue NHL.

Hello EA SPORTS NHL Team,

I’m a long-time NHL fan from Canada, and I’d like to ask you to consider releasing NHL 27 on PC.

Many hockey fans now play on PC, and having NHL available on Steam and the EA App with full controller support and cross-play would allow a much larger community to enjoy the game.

I would purchase NHL 27 on PC on day one, and I know many other players who would as well.

Thank you for considering this request, and thank you for continuing to develop the NHL series.

Once again we get another year without a PC version. Maybe NHL28

With the PS6 and Xbox Helix both becoming so much more like a PC I believe in 2yrs we shall see NHL come to PC.  With more people having gone to PC over time it will more than likely become a reality. This is just my guess though.  

I have been a fan of EA Sports NHL since the Sega Genesis days(back when it was NHLPA) and played them on various of platforms throughout the years. But, I haven't played the newer games since I have been focusing on my PC more and the only game that I play on XBox series X is '24. I heard once upon a time NHL was on Steam, but it was '09, but Steam was smaller back then. But Steam has grown in 17 years and more people are turning away from consoles. I hope in the near future, EA who has nearly every other sports game available on Steam, adds NHL to the list.  

KidShowtime1867 wrote:

EA typically surveys the player-base every year in some fashion and there's always questions related to people's most-used and most-preferred platform for playing NHL.

I've been playing for years and years and my club has not seen any surveys related to this at all, not saying that means EA does not do surveys but when you have a group of people that are very interested in this and they have never been asked for their feedback, some of can't play anymore either because they don't value buying a console to play one game when they have a PC, it makes me question how broad those surveys actually are and whether they’re reaching the people most interested in a PC release. You also have people that only game via PC, if they only survey the player-base how do they reach those people who can't play the game? Maybe this is something EA can do differently. 

KidShowtime1867 wrote:

But things changed when gaming consoles started taking more market share

I get what you mean about consoles taking more market share, which probably was true during the xbox 360/ps3 era when publishers were heavily shifting and pushing games to console and consoles started to dominate. But I think that point needs to be viewed in the context of that time period, the PC market now is not the same as the 2004-2011 PC market, steam is massive now, pc hardware is more mainstream, cross-platform releases are super common now, You also have gaming laptops and pre-built gaming PCs now that offer a much more console-like plug-and-play experience than PC gaming used to, with many of them outperforming current consoles. If the blocker is still ROI, infrastructure, anti-cheat, or support costs, fair enough, but I’d like to know whether that conclusion is based on current PC demand rather than the market conditions from 15–20 years ago.

KidShowtime1867 wrote:

I'm not denying there's a PC market out there. But for NHL specifically, there isn't enough of a market to justify the ROI. People vastly underestimate the infrastructure needed to support a PC release in addition to consoles. They may appear to be 'the same' on the surface, but there's far more involved. 

I dont disagree, there are lots of things that go into making a game and how to support it and I have seen it underestimated here, my issue is treating the ROI question as a settled fact when we don't know what the modern NHL demand for PC looks like. Like I previously wrote, the overall PC market is vastly different now and its continuously growing, by player-base it surpasses console, and there are projections for PC to pass console in revenue by 2028. 

So I’m not denying the infrastructure argument. I’m saying that if infrastructure/ROI is the blocker, it would be helpful for EA to actually explain that in modern terms instead of the community relying on assumptions based on old market conditions. Without EA giving any real explanation, none of us can confidently answer that either way.

I think its completely reasonable for the community to ask and expect a good explanation from EA as to the why or why nots without a PC title for 17 years and what it could look like going forward. 

KidShowtime1867 wrote:

Regarding cloud play - I think that's fine for offline players, but the meat and potatoes of NHL is HUT and EASHL/WoC. Those are unplayable via cloudplay. 

100%, but even for offline modes its not much playable either, its less punishing since its not online competition but you get the same experience. I typically remote play via my PC which is way more stable than cloudplay, some minor connection issues here and there.

titus1029 wrote:

I do see some pretty in depth feedback that gets zero interaction by EA here

I would actually challenge you to point to a thread that has in-depth feedback (and not just a wall of text ranting about how nobody knows hockey) that didn't have a response from EA. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I'm on the forums a lot and I can't remember a time recently where someone took effort into providing clips and genuine non-ai generated feedback and didn't get a single response from EA.

titus1029 wrote:

I haven’t personally seen much public-facing outreach from EA about PC interest

EA typically surveys the player-base every year in some fashion and there's always questions related to people's most-used and most-preferred platform for playing NHL. They invest real money into these surveys and that data drives product decisions. EA has a history of being in the PC market - especially NHL - so they have intimate knowledge of exactly why they aren't pushing a PC NHL release these days.

I'm someone who lived and breathed the NHL PC days. Quite honestly, it's probably the reason I do what I do now. I spent countless hours doing custom jerseys, ads, broadcast graphics, ice overlays.. it was endless. Shout out to the OG's who remember NHL-Depot.net and TheBreakAway.net 

PC leagues were amazing and EA had complete dominance over the PC market.

But things changed when gaming consoles started taking more market share and EA shifted around NHL 04 to being primarily a console title. 

I'm not denying there's a PC market out there. But for NHL specifically, there isn't enough of a market to justify the ROI. People vastly underestimate the infrastructure needed to support a PC release in addition to consoles. They may appear to be 'the same' on the surface, but there's far more involved. 

Regarding cloud play - I think that's fine for offline players, but the meat and potatoes of NHL is HUT and EASHL/WoC. Those are unplayable via cloudplay.