Full Pay to Win

The old monetization of WOC/EASHL didn't make the transfer to NHL 15 and for a decade they haven't really done anything to add it back.  With NHL 26 EA is leaning heavily into monetizing the mode, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I only see it getting worse in the future.

Personally I am flabbergasted by the number of players I run into that have not only purchased these builds but also the skins to go along with them.  At $15-$20 CAD a pop for a skin/build bundle EA is pulling in a good deal of money with this approach.  If people are willing to pay, they're going to keep pumping out new things for them to buy.   And I would expect there will be power creep in the builds as time goes on to keep players dropping money on them.

It's not just the builds either, EA is monetizing the X-Factors as well.   They're hiding most of the unlock-able X-Factors at the end of the battle pass and have made it very difficult for most players to reach them through normal play.  But don't worry you can buy the X-Factors you don't unlock in the WOC store for real money.  My club isn't at the top end of games played by any stretch, but we play a pretty consistent 25-30 games a week and we're nowhere near having enough XP to unlock the last several X-Factors in the battle pass this season.  Mostly because we have no interest in playing the "event" modes or buying anything in the WOC store.  It's not the end of the world, but it will put us in a situation where we have less flexibility when it comes to putting our builds together down the road.

I'm only half-joking when I say I'm waiting for EA to release a '99' build with elite Truculence, Wheels and Quick Release.