Hard to imagine but taking a year off for this series would be disaster. People are angry enough year to year with the lack of innovation and improvements so just imagine you waited 2 years and were disappointed. Honestly after playing NHL16 if they didn’t release again until 18 would you be blown away? The improvements from 16 to 18 are minuscule at best in fact next gen has been a disaster for this development crew that clearly doesn’t understand the game of hockey or the consoles they are developing for
Here's the thing, the reason there were so little improvements from year to year is PRECISELY because they are on a yearly release schedule. Game comes out in Sept, they take 2-3 months to work on the bugs, then by end Dec, early Jan, they start working on the new game again while the "old" game is left in the state it's in.
Making a game with a 2-3 year cycle, means that the devs get to work and perfect the current game that's out, while releasing yearly "updates" that you can charge for (people would pay like 30-40$ for a DLC update that includes new arenas, jerseys, game modes, etc). After 2 years, they start working on the NEW game with a NEW engine. People will get excited because it's NEW and will buy it at full price. And then you repeat the process over and over again.
In general, I'd be fine with a subscription, but when it comes to EA, I have no faith in them to actually be doing this to improve the quality of the game. I imagine this is mostly seen as a way to save costs on the following:
Not needing to have developers working on two code bases (patches for old, improvement for new)
Not needing to keep game servers up for any old versions
Not needing as much marketing every year (don't need to convince people to spend $60 on the new game, just keep their $5/month subscription)
Don't need to have "marketable" features like new dekes every year
I'm sure there's others too, and while a good developer might take those cost savings and invest it back in the game to make something better, I look at EA and see a company with profits of close to 1 billion per year that doesn't need to cut costs if they want to improve their games, and has a fairly consistent history of doing as little as possible. All I see when I look at that list is:
Now we don't need as many developers
Now we don't need as many servers, and can reset all HUT teams as often as we want!
Now we don't need as many marketers
Now we need even fewer developers
I realize this is an extremely cynical point of view, but I just don't see how anyone can trust EA to be making this decision for the betterment of the games.
That's why I say if the guys working on the game really had passion for what they are doing and wanted to make a really great hockey game they'd quit and go on kickstarter and start a new studio and make a non nhl licensed game focusing on a game mode like eashl and making it perfect.
Corporate ea is holding them back.
Thats...not so easy to do. Especially with how hockey sells. Not everyone can do an infinity ward.
Hard to imagine but taking a year off for this series would be disaster. People are angry enough year to year with the lack of innovation and improvements so just imagine you waited 2 years and were disappointed. Honestly after playing NHL16 if they didn’t release again until 18 would you be blown away? The improvements from 16 to 18 are minuscule at best in fact next gen has been a disaster for this development crew that clearly doesn’t understand the game of hockey or the consoles they are developing for
Here's the thing, the reason there were so little improvements from year to year is PRECISELY because they are on a yearly release schedule. Game comes out in Sept, they take 2-3 months to work on the bugs, then by end Dec, early Jan, they start working on the new game again while the "old" game is left in the state it's in.
Making a game with a 2-3 year cycle, means that the devs get to work and perfect the current game that's out, while releasing yearly "updates" that you can charge for (people would pay like 30-40$ for a DLC update that includes new arenas, jerseys, game modes, etc). After 2 years, they start working on the NEW game with a NEW engine. People will get excited because it's NEW and will buy it at full price. And then you repeat the process over and over again.
I don't really agree with this. >THere's close to no design to be made. No textures to be created. No new map creation. Its a hockey game, 5 vs 5 on an ice rink. Its not like there's a new open world city map to be created then work on game play and texture rendering and all new whatever... All there is to work on is mechanics. ALL they had to do in the last 3 years is fix the bugs to prevent ppl from going mad... And what prevents them from currently working on nhl 2020 even with yearly release.? Its not like they are working on improving somthing on yearly basis... lol
I really doubt its because yearly release that theres so little improvement. I think its because they dont care.
Hard to imagine but taking a year off for this series would be disaster. People are angry enough year to year with the lack of innovation and improvements so just imagine you waited 2 years and were disappointed. Honestly after playing NHL16 if they didn’t release again until 18 would you be blown away? The improvements from 16 to 18 are minuscule at best in fact next gen has been a disaster for this development crew that clearly doesn’t understand the game of hockey or the consoles they are developing for
Here's the thing, the reason there were so little improvements from year to year is PRECISELY because they are on a yearly release schedule. Game comes out in Sept, they take 2-3 months to work on the bugs, then by end Dec, early Jan, they start working on the new game again while the "old" game is left in the state it's in.
Making a game with a 2-3 year cycle, means that the devs get to work and perfect the current game that's out, while releasing yearly "updates" that you can charge for (people would pay like 30-40$ for a DLC update that includes new arenas, jerseys, game modes, etc). After 2 years, they start working on the NEW game with a NEW engine. People will get excited because it's NEW and will buy it at full price. And then you repeat the process over and over again.
I don't really agree with this. >THere's close to no design to be made. No textures to be created. No new map creation. Its a hockey game, 5 vs 5 on an ice rink. Its not like there's a new open world city map to be created then work on game play and texture rendering and all new whatever... All there is to work on is mechanics. ALL they had to do in the last 3 years is fix the bugs to prevent ppl from going mad... And what prevents them from currently working on nhl 2020 even with yearly release.? Its not like they are working on improving somthing on yearly basis... lol
I really doubt its because yearly release that theres so little improvement. I think its because they dont care.
Ya but the problem is that the yearly release creates deadlines that would spread the dev team thin. As mentioned earlier, right now you would expect that the team is working on basic maintenance and bug fixing for 18. Pretty soon they will be working on 19 and they will need to start thinking of new features that they can market to sell the game. If they start on 19 by December or January that gives them 9 months until the annual September release date.
If there was no yearly release the dev team could provide updates on an ongoing basis without the pressure of the September deadline.
I’m just speculating as I don’t really know what the dev team’s deadlines and pressures are, but it makes sense.
Most importantly, getting rid of a yearly release would benefit the users too as there would be more players online to play with.
In general, I'd be fine with a subscription, but when it comes to EA, I have no faith in them to actually be doing this to improve the quality of the game. I imagine this is mostly seen as a way to save costs on the following:
Not needing to have developers working on two code bases (patches for old, improvement for new)
Not needing to keep game servers up for any old versions
Not needing as much marketing every year (don't need to convince people to spend $60 on the new game, just keep their $5/month subscription)
Don't need to have "marketable" features like new dekes every year
I'm sure there's others too, and while a good developer might take those cost savings and invest it back in the game to make something better, I look at EA and see a company with profits of close to 1 billion per year that doesn't need to cut costs if they want to improve their games, and has a fairly consistent history of doing as little as possible. All I see when I look at that list is:
Now we don't need as many developers
Now we don't need as many servers, and can reset all HUT teams as often as we want!
Now we don't need as many marketers
Now we need even fewer developers
I realize this is an extremely cynical point of view, but I just don't see how anyone can trust EA to be making this decision for the betterment of the games.
That's why I say if the guys working on the game really had passion for what they are doing and wanted to make a really great hockey game they'd quit and go on kickstarter and start a new studio and make a non nhl licensed game focusing on a game mode like eashl and making it perfect.
Corporate ea is holding them back.
Thats...not so easy to do. Especially with how hockey sells. Not everyone can do an infinity ward.
I'm more talking about games like yooka-laylee and road redemption both of which I believe are ex rare devs who spun off with their own awesome idea and make great games.
Obviously not easy but it can be done especially when you consider those are somewhat niche games.
Subscription based would kill this Game faster than a Puckdrop at the start of a Game . I'll go so far as saying: the REALLY high "Entry Fee" ( (having to buy a kindof mediocre Game which you know will be poorly supported at AAa price) is really stupid and stems from totally outdated AND uninformed understanding of todays gaming. Its a simple cash grab, and its being called more and more openly.
It has been mentioned above : Make it a free Download and maintain it via Micros, and it is pretty much guaranteed you turn its fate, which imho is a necessity...cos as of '18, it sure looks like its dying, they know it and are simply milking it dead .
Hard to imagine but taking a year off for this series would be disaster. People are angry enough year to year with the lack of innovation and improvements so just imagine you waited 2 years and were disappointed. Honestly after playing NHL16 if they didn’t release again until 18 would you be blown away? The improvements from 16 to 18 are minuscule at best in fact next gen has been a disaster for this development crew that clearly doesn’t understand the game of hockey or the consoles they are developing for
Here's the thing, the reason there were so little improvements from year to year is PRECISELY because they are on a yearly release schedule. Game comes out in Sept, they take 2-3 months to work on the bugs, then by end Dec, early Jan, they start working on the new game again while the "old" game is left in the state it's in.
Making a game with a 2-3 year cycle, means that the devs get to work and perfect the current game that's out, while releasing yearly "updates" that you can charge for (people would pay like 30-40$ for a DLC update that includes new arenas, jerseys, game modes, etc). After 2 years, they start working on the NEW game with a NEW engine. People will get excited because it's NEW and will buy it at full price. And then you repeat the process over and over again.
I don't really agree with this. >THere's close to no design to be made. No textures to be created. No new map creation. Its a hockey game, 5 vs 5 on an ice rink. Its not like there's a new open world city map to be created then work on game play and texture rendering and all new whatever... All there is to work on is mechanics. ALL they had to do in the last 3 years is fix the bugs to prevent ppl from going mad... And what prevents them from currently working on nhl 2020 even with yearly release.? Its not like they are working on improving somthing on yearly basis... lol
I really doubt its because yearly release that theres so little improvement. I think its because they dont care.
Ya but the problem is that the yearly release creates deadlines that would spread the dev team thin. As mentioned earlier, right now you would expect that the team is working on basic maintenance and bug fixing for 18. Pretty soon they will be working on 19 and they will need to start thinking of new features that they can market to sell the game. If they start on 19 by December or January that gives them 9 months until the annual September release date.
If there was no yearly release the dev team could provide updates on an ongoing basis without the pressure of the September deadline.
I’m just speculating as I don’t really know what the dev team’s deadlines and pressures are, but it makes sense.
Most importantly, getting rid of a yearly release would benefit the users too as there would be more players online to play with.
This point right here!! Out of curiosity I downloaded older versions of the game on the Xbox. NHL 15 had 200 people still playing it online. In VS mode the counts between 17 and 18 are VERY similar most of the time. Upper hand usually goes to 18 but it isn't by that much. I would have to assume that 16 would have less than 17 and more than 15, but I would have to download on the PS4 to find out for sure, and I don't know how accurate that would be comparing across platforms.
This point right here!! Out of curiosity I downloaded older versions of the game on the Xbox. NHL 15 had 200 people still playing it online. In VS mode the counts between 17 and 18 are VERY similar most of the time. Upper hand usually goes to 18 but it isn't by that much. I would have to assume that 16 would have less than 17 and more than 15, but I would have to download on the PS4 to find out for sure, and I don't know how accurate that would be comparing across platforms.
Yes this is a problem that will get bigger every year a new game is released. It’s slowly bleeding out the online community. If there was one NHL game that everyone had, there would be thousands of people online instead of just a couple hundred.
For a game that’s only a month and half old to have a few hundred players online each night is a bad sign.
Yeah even during peak hours it takes me several minutes to find a HUT/VS/DC opponent sometimes. That should not be happening just a few weeks after release.
Hard to imagine but taking a year off for this series would be disaster. People are angry enough year to year with the lack of innovation and improvements so just imagine you waited 2 years and were disappointed. Honestly after playing NHL16 if they didn’t release again until 18 would you be blown away? The improvements from 16 to 18 are minuscule at best in fact next gen has been a disaster for this development crew that clearly doesn’t understand the game of hockey or the consoles they are developing for
Here's the thing, the reason there were so little improvements from year to year is PRECISELY because they are on a yearly release schedule. Game comes out in Sept, they take 2-3 months to work on the bugs, then by end Dec, early Jan, they start working on the new game again while the "old" game is left in the state it's in.
Making a game with a 2-3 year cycle, means that the devs get to work and perfect the current game that's out, while releasing yearly "updates" that you can charge for (people would pay like 30-40$ for a DLC update that includes new arenas, jerseys, game modes, etc). After 2 years, they start working on the NEW game with a NEW engine. People will get excited because it's NEW and will buy it at full price. And then you repeat the process over and over again.
I don't really agree with this. >THere's close to no design to be made. No textures to be created. No new map creation. Its a hockey game, 5 vs 5 on an ice rink. Its not like there's a new open world city map to be created then work on game play and texture rendering and all new whatever... All there is to work on is mechanics. ALL they had to do in the last 3 years is fix the bugs to prevent ppl from going mad... And what prevents them from currently working on nhl 2020 even with yearly release.? Its not like they are working on improving somthing on yearly basis... lol
I really doubt its because yearly release that theres so little improvement. I think its because they dont care.
It doesnt sound like you know much about game development
But year to year...this game does change. I feel they added alot of things this year. Did they add everything I want to see in this game...no and I don't expect any development team to read my mind.
We have been waiting for a practice mode to return to EASHL for 4 years now.
Does this mean not make the game next year...no it doesn't...for me at least.
Do I want them spending time enhancing offline modes...no I don't...I am biased...but also these modes are dead to me and alot of people. Sure there are some on this forum that love that stuff...but games aren't moving in that direction.
Do they have to keep HUT going...yes...HUT may be the only reason this game is still being made...because if it wasn't being made...this DEV team might not be given the go ahead to keep making this game. Even if the profits on NHL are small compared to MADDEN and FIFA...at least HUT allows them to say hey we are making a profit.
Do I wish EASHL was the main focus...yes. I am not sure if it is...very unlikely...but it does get small yearly improvements in presentation combined with whatever new mechanics they add to the game such as skating, new moves...etc.
There are people that want custom builds back...and people that hate them...not sure what EA can do about pleasing both sides on that one.
There are small things like players on EASHL teams wearing C's and A's that people care about that are small and meaningless...but who cares...people want them...they should be back in the game. In the event that the DEVS do not know this well here you go.
But pretending like releasing this game every other year...or once every four years...or having the game be subscription based...is just crazy. How would this improve the game...I mean seriously explain yourself.
It is hockey...and if we exclude offline modes...they are very limited as for how much they can actually change hockey in a rink.
It's a process, and every year I feel the game takes steps forward and in some cases steps backward when they screw something up. Seamless puck pickups are not very seamless...they are a mess at times. These are kinks that need to be fixed and should be a priority...but I guess what I am saying is....What do you guys want out of these DEVS...
Now is the time of year to make threads about PRIORITIES for next year. The devs do read the threads on these forums and have responded to me personally on multiple occasions.
Hard to imagine but taking a year off for this series would be disaster. People are angry enough year to year with the lack of innovation and improvements so just imagine you waited 2 years and were disappointed. Honestly after playing NHL16 if they didn’t release again until 18 would you be blown away? The improvements from 16 to 18 are minuscule at best in fact next gen has been a disaster for this development crew that clearly doesn’t understand the game of hockey or the consoles they are developing for
Here's the thing, the reason there were so little improvements from year to year is PRECISELY because they are on a yearly release schedule. Game comes out in Sept, they take 2-3 months to work on the bugs, then by end Dec, early Jan, they start working on the new game again while the "old" game is left in the state it's in.
Making a game with a 2-3 year cycle, means that the devs get to work and perfect the current game that's out, while releasing yearly "updates" that you can charge for (people would pay like 30-40$ for a DLC update that includes new arenas, jerseys, game modes, etc). After 2 years, they start working on the NEW game with a NEW engine. People will get excited because it's NEW and will buy it at full price. And then you repeat the process over and over again.
I don't really agree with this. >THere's close to no design to be made. No textures to be created. No new map creation. Its a hockey game, 5 vs 5 on an ice rink. Its not like there's a new open world city map to be created then work on game play and texture rendering and all new whatever... All there is to work on is mechanics. ALL they had to do in the last 3 years is fix the bugs to prevent ppl from going mad... And what prevents them from currently working on nhl 2020 even with yearly release.? Its not like they are working on improving somthing on yearly basis... lol
I really doubt its because yearly release that theres so little improvement. I think its because they dont care.
It doesnt sound like you know much about game development
But year to year...this game does change. I feel they added alot of things this year. Did they add everything I want to see in this game...no and I don't expect any development team to read my mind.
We have been waiting for a practice mode to return to EASHL for 4 years now.
Does this mean not make the game next year...no it doesn't...for me at least.
Do I want them spending time enhancing offline modes...no I don't...I am biased...but also these modes are dead to me and alot of people. Sure there are some on this forum that love that stuff...but games aren't moving in that direction.
Do they have to keep HUT going...yes...HUT may be the only reason this game is still being made...because if it wasn't being made...this DEV team might not be given the go ahead to keep making this game. Even if the profits on NHL are small compared to MADDEN and FIFA...at least HUT allows them to say hey we are making a profit.
Do I wish EASHL was the main focus...yes. I am not sure if it is...very unlikely...but it does get small yearly improvements in presentation combined with whatever new mechanics they add to the game such as skating, new moves...etc.
There are people that want custom builds back...and people that hate them...not sure what EA can do about pleasing both sides on that one.
There are small things like players on EASHL teams wearing C's and A's that people care about that are small and meaningless...but who cares...people want them...they should be back in the game. In the event that the DEVS do not know this well here you go.
But pretending like releasing this game every other year...or once every four years...or having the game be subscription based...is just crazy. How would this improve the game...I mean seriously explain yourself.
It is hockey...and if we exclude offline modes...they are very limited as for how much they can actually change hockey in a rink.
It's a process, and every year I feel the game takes steps forward and in some cases steps backward when they screw something up. Seamless puck pickups are not very seamless...they are a mess at times. These are kinks that need to be fixed and should be a priority...but I guess what I am saying is....What do you guys want out of these DEVS...
Now is the time of year to make threads about PRIORITIES for next year. The devs do read the threads on these forums and have responded to me personally on multiple occasions.
Well... I've read a lot that instead of bringing new modes and mascots. That the current problems be solved first. I've seen that sentence a lot.
I wish people would just say what they want.
But pretending like releasing this game every other year...or once every four years...or having the game be subscription based...is just crazy. How would this improve the game...I mean seriously explain yourself.
It is hockey...and if we exclude offline modes...they are very limited as for how much they can actually change hockey in a rink.
You're not seeing the big picture. It makes far more sense business wise to release one version of the game at a lower price point to increase the VOLUME of sales.
Look at the biggest games in the world right now: Counter Strike, Rocket League, DOTA, LoL, PUBG - they all have HUGE player bases because all the players are playing the same game.
When you release a new game every year your player base gets divided even further so it keeps shrinking. It's not rocket science.
I feel like a broken record here, but people laughed at me a year ago when I said NHL should copy what Rocket League is doing. Everyone thought that game was a joke and it wouldn't last etc. Well today on Twitch they had some major tournament and there were well over 100, 000 people WATCHING the game.
I bet you the latest NHL hasn't had even 10,000 concurrent users in years.
So why is that game so successful?
It's $20. All the sudden the game sells like crazy because it's relatively cheap and the gameplay is actually awesome - what a bonus. Now your community is HUGE and the game sells itself. People upload awesome replays which go viral , certain players get famous for their skill and all the sudden the game starts bringing in tons of revenue through micro-transactions and sponsorships through tournaments.
That is how you run a successful game in 2017. It's not 1994 anymore.
And here I thought I was the only one who understood. This guy gets it.
I agree on the general point that a game like NHL shouldn't be a yearly release, and that a subscription or low single-time purchase would give them the opportunity to create a better game (whether or not they actually do that is up for debate). The biggest piece to this is how does HUT work in such a scenario?
Surely, EA doesn't want users to simply spend real money on packs in the first few months and have a team that's set for 10+ years, but they're then left with only a few options of how to handle it, with none of them really being that great. They could simply wipe all teams every September, but that would leave a ton of people with a bad taste in their mouth after they can't even load up a team they spent real money to use. They could go the other route and simply have new seasons of HUT, but allow users to play the old ones too, but that creates a huge mess of separate versions where people just want to play on the version where they have the best team, and you end up with a divided user base again.
Then you have some of the more unique ideas like just continuously releasing new cards with higher and higher overalls, or changing all players' cards at the beginning of each real NHL season to be something like -10 to all stats. Perhaps the most likely scenario would be player cards that permanently expire after a certain number of days or games played (3 months, or 100 games, or something). That "solves" the problem of how to deal with players that might pick up the game at different times of the year by putting everyone on an even keel, but also creates a new problem of how to release new cards. Would releasing 99's as they do now make much sense if people hold on to them and then smoke teams in October that are relying on currently available players, or would releasing 99 overall players throughout the year make it lose some of the excitement of when they release 99 overall players? I guess if they're doing 3 month expirations on players, that means they can release players in June and have them out of the system by September, but it would make the game sort of a big headache to manage players "retiring" on a regular basis.
Anyways, I would be sort of surprised for them to try something like that with Madden or FIFA, which could make a huge positive or negative impact on things. You'd think they might try with NHL first, because if it does fail horribly, they don't destroy one of their bigger franchises, and if it works really well, they maybe created a new one.
They just go back to the way hut used to work. You have your cards and each card can accept a limited amount of games via contract cards and once the games expire the card goes away.
They just go back to the way hut used to work. You have your cards and each card can accept a limited amount of games via contract cards and once the games expire the card goes away.
Number of games played has its own problems though. In particular without any sort of forced expiration date, it means that any card they release probably needs to exist forever in the auction house and every other part of the game. You also run into problems where maybe someone holds onto a bunch of cards with old synergies, and then combines them with cards a few years later to get some enormous team boosts that weren't planned for. Perhaps the biggest reason though is that it let's EA remove high rated cards on a regular basis, and keeps people buying packs on a regular basis.
A three month (or variable) expiration date makes the most sense to me though, because it keeps users buying packs, it means EA doesn't need to worry about old synergies after a few months, they can release fun cards even just for a week or two (99 John Scott), and they don't need to buy perpetual rights to legends' rights for cards. They could also do some fun things like have basic cards never expire, and get updated each year to whatever they player's new base value is for the next season (so not upgrading with TOTY, Milestones, and such). That means picking up a future all-star could be a huge win, but even the best base cards like Crosby and McDavid would easily be beat by most special cards available at the time.
Replies
Here's the thing, the reason there were so little improvements from year to year is PRECISELY because they are on a yearly release schedule. Game comes out in Sept, they take 2-3 months to work on the bugs, then by end Dec, early Jan, they start working on the new game again while the "old" game is left in the state it's in.
Making a game with a 2-3 year cycle, means that the devs get to work and perfect the current game that's out, while releasing yearly "updates" that you can charge for (people would pay like 30-40$ for a DLC update that includes new arenas, jerseys, game modes, etc). After 2 years, they start working on the NEW game with a NEW engine. People will get excited because it's NEW and will buy it at full price. And then you repeat the process over and over again.
Thats...not so easy to do. Especially with how hockey sells. Not everyone can do an infinity ward.
I don't really agree with this. >THere's close to no design to be made. No textures to be created. No new map creation. Its a hockey game, 5 vs 5 on an ice rink. Its not like there's a new open world city map to be created then work on game play and texture rendering and all new whatever... All there is to work on is mechanics. ALL they had to do in the last 3 years is fix the bugs to prevent ppl from going mad... And what prevents them from currently working on nhl 2020 even with yearly release.? Its not like they are working on improving somthing on yearly basis... lol
I really doubt its because yearly release that theres so little improvement. I think its because they dont care.
Ya but the problem is that the yearly release creates deadlines that would spread the dev team thin. As mentioned earlier, right now you would expect that the team is working on basic maintenance and bug fixing for 18. Pretty soon they will be working on 19 and they will need to start thinking of new features that they can market to sell the game. If they start on 19 by December or January that gives them 9 months until the annual September release date.
If there was no yearly release the dev team could provide updates on an ongoing basis without the pressure of the September deadline.
I’m just speculating as I don’t really know what the dev team’s deadlines and pressures are, but it makes sense.
Most importantly, getting rid of a yearly release would benefit the users too as there would be more players online to play with.
I'm more talking about games like yooka-laylee and road redemption both of which I believe are ex rare devs who spun off with their own awesome idea and make great games.
Obviously not easy but it can be done especially when you consider those are somewhat niche games.
It has been mentioned above : Make it a free Download and maintain it via Micros, and it is pretty much guaranteed you turn its fate, which imho is a necessity...cos as of '18, it sure looks like its dying, they know it and are simply milking it dead .
This point right here!! Out of curiosity I downloaded older versions of the game on the Xbox. NHL 15 had 200 people still playing it online. In VS mode the counts between 17 and 18 are VERY similar most of the time. Upper hand usually goes to 18 but it isn't by that much. I would have to assume that 16 would have less than 17 and more than 15, but I would have to download on the PS4 to find out for sure, and I don't know how accurate that would be comparing across platforms.
Yes this is a problem that will get bigger every year a new game is released. It’s slowly bleeding out the online community. If there was one NHL game that everyone had, there would be thousands of people online instead of just a couple hundred.
For a game that’s only a month and half old to have a few hundred players online each night is a bad sign.
It doesnt sound like you know much about game development
I know there are wish lists made here and there.
But year to year...this game does change. I feel they added alot of things this year. Did they add everything I want to see in this game...no and I don't expect any development team to read my mind.
We have been waiting for a practice mode to return to EASHL for 4 years now.
Does this mean not make the game next year...no it doesn't...for me at least.
Do I want them spending time enhancing offline modes...no I don't...I am biased...but also these modes are dead to me and alot of people. Sure there are some on this forum that love that stuff...but games aren't moving in that direction.
Do they have to keep HUT going...yes...HUT may be the only reason this game is still being made...because if it wasn't being made...this DEV team might not be given the go ahead to keep making this game. Even if the profits on NHL are small compared to MADDEN and FIFA...at least HUT allows them to say hey we are making a profit.
Do I wish EASHL was the main focus...yes. I am not sure if it is...very unlikely...but it does get small yearly improvements in presentation combined with whatever new mechanics they add to the game such as skating, new moves...etc.
There are people that want custom builds back...and people that hate them...not sure what EA can do about pleasing both sides on that one.
There are small things like players on EASHL teams wearing C's and A's that people care about that are small and meaningless...but who cares...people want them...they should be back in the game. In the event that the DEVS do not know this well here you go.
But pretending like releasing this game every other year...or once every four years...or having the game be subscription based...is just crazy. How would this improve the game...I mean seriously explain yourself.
It is hockey...and if we exclude offline modes...they are very limited as for how much they can actually change hockey in a rink.
It's a process, and every year I feel the game takes steps forward and in some cases steps backward when they screw something up. Seamless puck pickups are not very seamless...they are a mess at times. These are kinks that need to be fixed and should be a priority...but I guess what I am saying is....What do you guys want out of these DEVS...
Now is the time of year to make threads about PRIORITIES for next year. The devs do read the threads on these forums and have responded to me personally on multiple occasions.
I do know much about buisness tho'
Well... I've read a lot that instead of bringing new modes and mascots. That the current problems be solved first. I've seen that sentence a lot.
You're not seeing the big picture. It makes far more sense business wise to release one version of the game at a lower price point to increase the VOLUME of sales.
Look at the biggest games in the world right now: Counter Strike, Rocket League, DOTA, LoL, PUBG - they all have HUGE player bases because all the players are playing the same game.
When you release a new game every year your player base gets divided even further so it keeps shrinking. It's not rocket science.
I feel like a broken record here, but people laughed at me a year ago when I said NHL should copy what Rocket League is doing. Everyone thought that game was a joke and it wouldn't last etc. Well today on Twitch they had some major tournament and there were well over 100, 000 people WATCHING the game.
I bet you the latest NHL hasn't had even 10,000 concurrent users in years.
So why is that game so successful?
It's $20. All the sudden the game sells like crazy because it's relatively cheap and the gameplay is actually awesome - what a bonus. Now your community is HUGE and the game sells itself. People upload awesome replays which go viral , certain players get famous for their skill and all the sudden the game starts bringing in tons of revenue through micro-transactions and sponsorships through tournaments.
That is how you run a successful game in 2017. It's not 1994 anymore.
Low cost, high volume of sales
Counter Strike: $14.99
Rocket League: $19.99 (but you can get it on sale)
Dota 2: Free to play
PUBG: $36.99
High cost, low volume of sales
NHL 18: $79.99
I agree on the general point that a game like NHL shouldn't be a yearly release, and that a subscription or low single-time purchase would give them the opportunity to create a better game (whether or not they actually do that is up for debate). The biggest piece to this is how does HUT work in such a scenario?
Surely, EA doesn't want users to simply spend real money on packs in the first few months and have a team that's set for 10+ years, but they're then left with only a few options of how to handle it, with none of them really being that great. They could simply wipe all teams every September, but that would leave a ton of people with a bad taste in their mouth after they can't even load up a team they spent real money to use. They could go the other route and simply have new seasons of HUT, but allow users to play the old ones too, but that creates a huge mess of separate versions where people just want to play on the version where they have the best team, and you end up with a divided user base again.
Then you have some of the more unique ideas like just continuously releasing new cards with higher and higher overalls, or changing all players' cards at the beginning of each real NHL season to be something like -10 to all stats. Perhaps the most likely scenario would be player cards that permanently expire after a certain number of days or games played (3 months, or 100 games, or something). That "solves" the problem of how to deal with players that might pick up the game at different times of the year by putting everyone on an even keel, but also creates a new problem of how to release new cards. Would releasing 99's as they do now make much sense if people hold on to them and then smoke teams in October that are relying on currently available players, or would releasing 99 overall players throughout the year make it lose some of the excitement of when they release 99 overall players? I guess if they're doing 3 month expirations on players, that means they can release players in June and have them out of the system by September, but it would make the game sort of a big headache to manage players "retiring" on a regular basis.
Anyways, I would be sort of surprised for them to try something like that with Madden or FIFA, which could make a huge positive or negative impact on things. You'd think they might try with NHL first, because if it does fail horribly, they don't destroy one of their bigger franchises, and if it works really well, they maybe created a new one.
Number of games played has its own problems though. In particular without any sort of forced expiration date, it means that any card they release probably needs to exist forever in the auction house and every other part of the game. You also run into problems where maybe someone holds onto a bunch of cards with old synergies, and then combines them with cards a few years later to get some enormous team boosts that weren't planned for. Perhaps the biggest reason though is that it let's EA remove high rated cards on a regular basis, and keeps people buying packs on a regular basis.
A three month (or variable) expiration date makes the most sense to me though, because it keeps users buying packs, it means EA doesn't need to worry about old synergies after a few months, they can release fun cards even just for a week or two (99 John Scott), and they don't need to buy perpetual rights to legends' rights for cards. They could also do some fun things like have basic cards never expire, and get updated each year to whatever they player's new base value is for the next season (so not upgrading with TOTY, Milestones, and such). That means picking up a future all-star could be a huge win, but even the best base cards like Crosby and McDavid would easily be beat by most special cards available at the time.