NHL 26 Gameplay Deep Dive Trailer and Blog

I told them those are the types of things that need to be said in these types of videos instead of just on their website or having NoSleeves talk about it.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I'm tired of playing a game that feels like it's just barely put together by an indie team, while KNOWING there is a company as big as EA backing it. I WANT to like this game. So much so that I'm very willing to cut these guys a bunch of slack. It's just a huge lack of communication and lack of acknowledgement about some issues from the devs themselves. It's increasingly frustrating for these guys to be as silent as they are. What's worse is I don't see any regular attempt from the dev team to get community feedback. Where's the polls for most desired features? Where's the timelines for bug fixes? A roadmap for planned features, even if those features are planned for future games? There's so little transparency. 

I presented a model that would not only make EA more money which drives them but would deliver to the fans what we truly want. Currently their model is based off making subtle yearly changes to fan request that keep their costs low and  the loyalist  coming back for more. check out my post which has game desired  features and how this model works for both EA and us the consumer! 

https://forums.ea.com/users/bigtimetimjim/3335926

EA_Aljo​ 

A "deep dive" should be far longer than five minutes.  This was a "brief overview".

A "deep dive" would have explained:

Does EDGE data only affect NHL players, or all players on the roster?  Does it change the way generated prospects in FM attributes are created, or will they still have crazy, unrealistic combinations of attributes?

What are all the new and returning X-Factors and how specifically do they affect on-ice play?

Do tendencies have any affect on human-controlled players?  Or just AI controlled?  Can we change tendencies in the roster editor?  Can we set tendencies on created players?

LT/Vision Control change -- I'm glad to hear this was changed, but the video should have demonstrated how NHL 26 differs from NHL 25 in this respect.

Hip Check tuning -- again, I'm glad to see this was changed, but where's the video showing how it's different?

There's a section the blog post labeled "Puck Skills".  It says toe drags can now be done while moving backwards or laterally and that there's a new fake shot animation that you can pass out of.  Where's the demonstration of these new moves?  How are they done?

Goalies -- I don't play goalie at all, so I don't know what to ask, but I'm sure there are others here who do play goalies that have questions the video did not answer.

It was very surface level elaboration for a “deep dive” + people aren’t really concerned about the gameplay, we want a smooth menu, one that doesn’t have the same bugs from NHL 16. Matchmaking settings back in world of chel. Separate ranks for clubs and drop-ins. A career mode that’s DIFFERENT EVERY RELEASE, NOT EVERY 3-4 RELEASES. Scaled back HUT efforts to properly address bugs on a timeline that at least somewhat match the products price point. 

Aljo, I asked you this question multiple times and you haven’t answered once. Can you name one game at the EANHL price point that’s has its campaign/career mode almost completely unchanged for three+ consecutive releases? Do you realize how crazy that is? 

Same irritating, time-wasting (some game-breaking) bugs for 7? 8? + consecutive releases.

 Removed crucial matchmaking settings from your most competitive game mode thinking it would fix queue times; clearly out of touch with the reality of your AI IQ, if you weren’t you’d know that there’s no way 80%+ of clubs play against a single compy as a full queue 

A live Q&A is needed. The sooner the better. The EANHL team should be able to manage a 15-20 minute stream addressing community questions & concerns. Transparency is key. 

 lack of acknowledgement about some issues from the devs themselves.

Which issues were you looking for acknowledgment on?

We send out surveys in email. These forums are where we gather regular feedback. As well as other sites. I don't see how doing polls is going to generate more accurate feedback. Regardless, I'm certainly not against them. 

We can't really do a timeline for bug fixes. Nobody knows when an issue is going to be fixed because it has to be fixed in order for that to happen. They have to track down what's causing the issue, get a fix for it and add it to a patch. That is, if it requires code changes. Tuners don't need a patch, but the majority of issues aren't tuner related.

I would love to see more communication from the devs. I don't blame them for not interacting though as they would be met with a ton of toxicity. The amount of messages here alone that removed due to toxic comments is pretty high. So, there's a fair amount of feedback they don't get due to the hate. It's fine to be critical, but it needs to be constructive. Which, sadly, often isn't the case.

Thank you. I agree it would have been good to see more details on these. I'll let the team know.

This will be the first time in decades, maybe since NHL Hockey, that I’m skipping the new release. Not that I am looking for validation, just stating facts. The reasons are simple. Core issues remain unaddressed, transparency is non-existent, and the “deep dive” gameplay video was underwhelming to the point of being more like filler than an actual deep dive. Five to ten minutes is not a deep dive, and what we got barely scratched the surface.

Where’s the real look at how IceQ 2.0 interacts with NHL Edge? For that matter what is IceQ 2.0, beyond vague marketing talk? The feature is being positioned as a major advancement, but EA hasn’t actually explained it in concrete terms. Where are the side-by-side comparisons between last year and this year so we can see measurable differences? Instead, we get vague promises and pre-orders pushed before showing meaningful substance. How many years have we heard about some kind of advanced AI?

Beyond finally touching LT and hip checks, things that potentially could have been patched long ago, there’s little evidence of any real response to community requests. What’s been done about trolling, quitters, or matchmaking problems? Where are the fixes for menus and persistent bugs that have carried over year after year? We’re a month from release and EA is still slow dripping information as if hype alone is enough to close sales.

What in the current reveal cycle would convince you to buy this over last year’s version, other than the fact there’s no competition? The hype window has been non-existent for six months. Another poster recently suggested a live-service model instead of yearly “new” releases, and I agree. The yearly cycle is outdated and guarantees limited, incremental updates at best.

There absolutely should be a public roadmap, no dates needed, with statuses like “Investigating,” “In Progress,” or “Fixed,” especially for known bugs. The ongoing communication gap between the NHL team and its players is the real problem, and it’s been there for years. We’ve heard “things will get better,” but they haven’t. We’ve heard about how developer morale suffers when feedback is harsh, but that’s a symptom of ignored frustration, not the cause.

I don’t know how EA plans to turn this around. I don’t know the NHL franchise’s exact financials, but from where I sit which is anecdotal, the trend isn’t good. My entire group has already walked away from NHL 25, and none of us plan to buy 26 at launch. Maybe I’ll pick it up when it’s half off, maybe not. At this point, burnout has set in, and the trust is gone.

In recent memory, and I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any mention of plans to fix the slow/stuttery menus in the game. 

I can sympathize the reasoning for not reaching out to the communication more. No one deserves to be treated the way some people choose to do so.

However, I will say in my experience browsing other forums and talks among my friends that play, that the overall sentiment surrounding the game is negative as a whole. And that's because the issues/bugs that has been plaguing the game for years just has not been resolved. No one feels like they're being listened to. Or at least, no one is certain that's happening because we don't really receive any kind of information from the development side of things outside of marketing for the next game, patch notes, or a source outside of the dev team tells us something is being fixed/changed.

I understand why the devs want to avoid opening themselves up to the community, I do. It's just an incredibly frustrating thing to see new features being added to the game while the core experience suffers. 

There seems to be poor prioritization of changes and additions the game needs. We didn't need ICE-Q in 25. I can almost guarantee that newer, faster menus would have been celebrated and generated much more excitement than a new core element to the game. Same case for NHL 26. The team could have solely focused on improving the menus and improving BAP, and that would have been celebrated way more than the new EDGE data interactions in game. The poor prioritization of issues is the number one reason why people are going to be angry. 

If the devs are firm on not interacting with the community, they need to find a much better way to receive and give importance to feedback. 

Well said.