** NHL 15 Thread ** Part 1

[Cor]

EA should hire that guy...

Hopefully with them revamping the menus to match FIFA/Madden, the damn phone system is removed

 

[Bjorn Le]

People shouldn't buy it every year then. I but it every two years. Great value for me.

Same. Game still disappoints me but I get more of an upgrade by waiting.

 

[matt1396]

I'm kind of getting tired of the screenshots of arenas and want actual news, but ******* Xcel Energy Center looks good

 

[Lakings11]

 

[Deku]

I've made some covers, they aren't as good as the ones in that link, but I'll just leave them here in case anyone likes them.

http://imgur.com/a/9MVPq

(they are grainy in full-size but they look good when you print them out)

 

[HighOFFHockey]

Entirely new presentation. New Commentators. New Graphics Engine. New Proper Physics Collision system.

If anything, this is the one year you buy..... Far out some people complain hard.

60 dollars for over 100hours of entertainment is a pleasure to pay every year. I'm more worried about a game with less replay value and $60 price tag.

 

[leburn98]

For the love of god I hope they add LTIR, or some realism to the game modes. So sick of Marc ****in Savard taking up 4.5m of my cap on the Bruins when he'll never play another game again...You have to literally edit the roster and bury him in some foreign league its ridiculous.

Or be a cheap ******* and trade him for other players but that ruins the game for me.

Be a GM, Be a Pro, HUT all need more depth, funny how Madden, NCAA, FIFA, NBA ALLLLLL have better depth and modes than NHL. They never add anything decent to them or make it worse. Or take notes from MLB the SHOW.

***Removed to save space***

While I agree with pretty much all of your suggestions and complaints, you also have to understand that unlike FIFA, Madden, MLB and NBA, hockey is just not popular enough to warrant any company to spend access amounts of money on a series that may sell if lucky a million units combined across two platforms.

Regarding authentic goalie masks, equipment, etc. that all comes down to licensing deals. Those can come down to money or simply the designer not wanting to share their work. Also you have to realize that some goalie masks have copyrighted images that EA would have to clear across multiple copyright holders.

Some examples I can think of off the top of my head is Ned Flanders (The Simpsons) on Peter Budaj's mask, John Gibson's Pacman mask, Viktor Fasth had Judge Dredd on his mask in Anaheim, and Brzygalov has a few Sonic characters. So with just those 4 masks alone you have to deal not only with the artist (Swedish artist Dave Gunnarsson for those four), but you also have to get permission or sign deals with Fox, Namco, Rebellion Developments and SEGA. It's also one of those things that if you do it for a couple of masks, you have to do it for all as you don't want to alienate fans of other teams.

This also goes for other authentic suggestions such as goal horns, music, board ads and whatever else I've seen suggested over the years. It's for these reasons that would would love for NHL to make its way back to PC so that modding community can do what EA Canada is unable to.

Finally, getting back to sales and priorities and what not. Just for kicks, I went to VGChartz and calculated all of the sales of every NHL game EA released across the 360 and PS3 and here are the results:

360 sold 4.05M total units across NHL 07 to 14
PS3 sold 3.16M units across NHL 08 to 14
Combined the NHL series on 360\PS3 sold 7.21M units which averages to 0.9M units sold

To put this in perspective:
FIFA 14 sold 5.87M units on PS3 alone
FIFA 14 sold 14.12M units across 12 platforms
The Wii, yes the Wii, sold .31M units, 40K units less than NHL 14 sold on PS3.

North American comparable (ie sports where NA is the major draw):
NBA 2K series sold 13.32M units on 360 and 10.01M units on PS3 across 8 games
NBA 2K sold on average 2.92M units each year

Madden series sold 14.04M units on 360 and 19.99M units on PS3 across 8 games
Madden sold on average 4.25M units each year.

The most comparable to NHL in video game sales:
MLB: The Show sold 4.41 spanning over 8 games on just one platform (PS3)
MLB: The Show sold on average .55 units each year

With that said, The Show is developed by Sony specifically as an exclusive for the PlayStation platforms. They have more reasons to make the game than simply selling copies. Since The Show is the only Baseball game on the market for hardcore fans, you need to buy a PlayStation in order to play it. Despite how small it is, it is a system seller for Sony.

 

[andyolly]

I'm starting to get the feeling EA will just release pictures of each stadium (and occasionally new players in new jersey, ex: Kesler in Ducks uniform) until they've shown all 30 arenas, and once they've done that they start releasing actual info on the game.

 

[SKNJD9]

I'm starting to get the feeling EA will just release pictures of each stadium (and occasionally new players in new jersey, ex: Kesler in Ducks uniform) until they've shown all 30 arenas, and once they've done that they start releasing actual info on the game.

There isn't much info left to announce. They already said all the old game modes are coming back minus NHL94 mode.

With the small team they have + all the visual upgrades I doubt there is anything else new in the game, just some small additions to game modes at most.

 

[PuqTalk]

I've made some covers, they aren't as good as the ones in that link, but I'll just leave them here in case anyone likes them.

http://imgur.com/a/9MVPq

(they are grainy in full-size but they look good when you print them out)

I think these are better, man. Kick-ass job. You can actually read "NHL 15" here.

 

[andyolly]

There isn't much info left to announce. They already said all the old game modes are coming back minus NHL94 mode.

With the small team they have + all the visual upgrades I doubt there is anything else new in the game, just some small additions to game modes at most.

Well I mean the usual stuff they do. Was it last year or the year before where every week starting in late July the cover a different game mode and release the updates/changes/additions to them along the way? Something like that.

 

[Deku]

I think these are better, man. Kick-ass job. You can actually read "NHL 15" here.

Thanks man

I will add more to that album in the future, in case anyone is interested.

 

[UncleRisto]

Thanks man

I might add more to that album in the future, in case anyone is interested.

They look great. The Malkin one is kinda cool.

 

[SKNJD9]

Well I mean the usual stuff they do. Was it last year or the year before where every week starting in late July the cover a different game mode and release the updates/changes/additions to them along the way? Something like that.

Probably going to be starting that towards the end of the month and through most of august so they don't run out of stuff to talk about.

 

[Bardown warrior]

man i'm really hoping they have that arcade style mode like they did in nhl 05 where it'd just be one vs one multiplayer... Really wish they would bring that back.

 

[GoSensGo6172]

We need news on BAGM. There needs to be a major overhaul there.

 

[Hisch13r]

We need news on BAGM. There needs to be a major overhaul there.

Don't expect it this year. Next will most likely be the year with major improvements

 

[ShadowDuck]

man i'm really hoping they have that arcade style mode like they did in nhl 05 where it'd just be one vs one multiplayer... Really wish they would bring that back.

I remember the 1v1v1 mode.

They should bring it back, that mode would be LOVED online.

 

[Sempiternal]

Any news on how to get the most loyalty pucks for the next version? Even though I hate how much time I waste on the game.. I'll probably get a PS4 bundle. It's the only video game I play.

 

[islesfan3913]

I was hoping NHL 15 would be a big upgrade from 14. If the game isn't a big upgrade I can't justify buying a PS4 just to play it. I'll probably wait a while and get it cheap for PS3 if I get it at all.

 

[getyourselfsomerest]

I wonder what the difference will be between the new-gen and pre-gen versions? Will it just be a downgrade in graphics or are they omitting key features? Because if it's just a difference in graphics, I'm not buying a whole console to play one game.

 

[btlaffin]

From what I gather, it looks like the coaches are still random, old, bald dudes... Annoying.

 

[Mijatovic]

I wonder what the difference will be between the new-gen and pre-gen versions? Will it just be a downgrade in graphics or are they omitting key features? Because if it's just a difference in graphics, I'm not buying a whole console to play one game.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will be basically minor upgrades on NHL14. The Next Generation Versions are going to be significantly better.

 

[KuralySnipes]

The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will be basically minor upgrades on NHL14. The Next Generation Versions are going to be significantly better.

The improvements made to 15 are not really enough for me to upgrade to next gen. I'm really only interested in NHL, I will most likely wait until 16.

 

[Mijatovic]

Fair enough. But if an entirely new commentary team, a new graphics engine, a presentation overhaul, a physics overhaul isnt enough to get you to upgrade, I am curious what actually would get you to switch.

All these are big ticket changes. Not to mention, we havent heard about what changes have been made to the modes yet.