You’re overcomplicating what I’m talking about. I’m not asking for “press a button, add a feature” — I’m pointing out that basic depth and realism that used to be in the game has been stripped out of Franchise, Be a Pro, and Presentation for years, and despite fans asking, it’s never been brought back. We’re not talking brand-new, physics-breaking innovations here. We’re talking about basic features that were already in NHL over a decade ago, ran fine, and made the experience better.
You also can’t ignore the fact EA has a monopoly on licensed hockey games. There’s no competition breathing down their neck, and they’ve shifted focus to HUT because it’s the cash cow. I get why they do it — it makes money — but pretending that doesn’t affect where time and resources go is just being willfully blind.
That’s the point of bringing up the business model. I’m not even saying necessarily“give us everything at once,” just bring back the core features that made past games great. Right now, there’s no financial reason to do that. But if a model like a subscription guaranteed long-term revenue while letting devs work on one evolving game instead of chopping it into yearly releases, they could bring those features back and still keep the lights on.
Community ManagerYou also can’t ignore the fact EA has a monopoly on licensed hockey games. There’s no competition breathing down their neck, and they’ve shifted focus to HUT because it’s the cash cow. I get why they do it — it makes money — but pretending that doesn’t affect where time and resources go is just being willfully blind.
Did you see there's a big BaP update coming? There also have been numerous updates to Franchise Mode in recent years. HUT of course gets updates since it's one of the most popular modes. That doesn't mean we're ignoring other modes though. The focus hasn't shifted to HUT. The focus is on the game as a whole. We can't do major overhauls of every mode every year though.
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