Community ManagerYou gotta fire your marketing director as they failed big time. Little to no info on a release schedule, these deep dives tell almost no info at all. The marketing for this is making more and more people not want to pre-order the game.
As someone who does understand marketing, its frustrating. Same shallow bits of information every year. This was a "deep dive" for gameplay. Great, this should have come out a month ago. And A deep dive is not a few minutes long, it shows gameplay, speaks with the devs of the game in interviews. They answer questions from fans/gamers, talk about the video of gameplay and then speak more in depth on it. This is is how it works with any successful franchise game out there. I get its a sports game, so its a bit different, but the strategy is the same. Convince people to buy the game by showing them why they should. Build hype, get gamers/streamers involved in the process. Take a page from games by Frontier, they know how to market with all of their titles. Colossus was the same before Cities Skylines 2 went down the toilet. Paradox, another company that knows how to build hype, though some of their expansions have been flops. Its about creating a marketing strategy that makes you want to believe that the game or expansion is worth my spending money on. I love hockey, I just want the game to succeed, but with the shallowness of information that they provide before release, its really hard to justify the money, and excitement just isn't there. Create hype. I want to believe that the changes will come, but from past experiences with EA, so far, its not enough. Not when you are releasing a game so similar each year. Listen to your loyal customers.
Community ManagerThat's all fair. I personally would have liked to have seen a trailer more like what you described.
As far as listening to our customers goes, there were community feedback changes highlighted in the blog. We also haven't announced everything yet. As with every year, details come out as we get closer to release.
What if some of the changes didn't happen until recently after? They are still working on the game even a month before. Things change and you don't want to show even less things because you don't want to show unfinished things.
Look at how some games have shown off trailers for games 2 years in the past then when the final product comes out it feels like a downgrade in terms of graphics and other things. It's better to show what the game will all have is what I am getting at.
I get changes happen throughout the year. The problem is in the marketing strategy itself. When very little is shown about the game prior to release, there is 0 hype or excitement. Its why the yearly release model does not work for games anymore. Releasing a new game every four-five years is smarter. You focus your attention on the updates/upgrades, releasing them often. No wasted energy on launching a whole new product (that is pretty much the same, with a few minor tweaks), energy and time goes into improvements. Do videos on those updates. Sell a season's pass for updates and upgrades. That way, there is always a buzz around the game. As a company you are releasing videos at least every month. Devs speaking about the changes, and what to look forward to, addressing fans, both concerns and requests. These days, marketing in the video game industry is all about communication and making sure that your game continues to be talked about. If you barely release any information, it shows a disconnect. A short video every week for a month before launch, that is not a marketing strategy, that is video game destruction. I have a experience with this stuff, I have also been a gamer, streamer, and Youtuber, for a long time. I only gave it up as my health went south, and my focus shifted to enjoying more time with my family. If EA wants a successful product launch and good reviews, they need to fix their marketing, and change with the industry. Video gaming is a fickle industry, you move with it, or get left behind. Its not meant to be completely negative, it just trying to see a game that I loved back from Sega Genesis days through to the present, not continue to falter and lose sales.
All of their sports titles pretty much don't start showcasing the upcoming game until a month or so before launch. It's not just an NHL thing it's an EA Sports thing. May 29th is when College Football 26 was shown. It launched officially on July 10th.
Fun fact is that NHL used to promote the upcoming game almost 2 months ahead of the release and then guess what happened? People got bored they had to wait after having the information. So there really is no point in announcing it more than a month early with some deep dives to keep things going. Anyone who has followed their sports games knows the routine by now.
Honestly people just want a video telling them that full presentation is coming back, GMC is coming back, authentic hockey is going to become more of a thing, and that PC is getting a launch. But they don't appear to be getting those things so they aren't going to be happy this year. You pretty much know when you see the reveal trailer what all is gonna be different. The deep dives just further go into detail about the changes that are made. Some people will be happy with what is given and others not so much. I've passed on many of your concerns you have had for the future of the series, but it's not up to me if things get added/changed/or whatever.
Me personally from the news today I'm super happy that hipchecks and LT-ing has been addressed.
Community Manager
