From a programming perspective I use Python primarily, not sure what languages EA uses, but I'd guess that a lot of the physics and skater/goalie animations are 1) proprietary and 2) difficult to build up from scratch.
Say what you want about the EA NHL physics engine but there's a lot going on there that they have built on for over a decade. Getting a small dev studio to commit to something like that is probably more insurmountable than we realize. I think EA NHL sells maybe a million or so copies a year. That's a lot of work just to get a small slice of that pie. Not to mention there are probably very few hockey fans who are also in software design so to really nail it down you'd need someone who loves hockey as much as they love programming, very rare.
If someone did pull off a World of Chel copycat game it would probably be some F2P, Battle Pass-ridden crappola anyway with a significantly smaller player base than what we get with EA now.
Ultimately I think you're right; which is why any non-EA hockey games tend towards arcade game play or "retro" graphics.
However, I also think there is a commitment in the general sports-game industry towards licensing. It makes sense - your biggest market on a hockey game is going to be hockey fans, and marketing is built in. And in the NHL## series prior to the advent of WoC; every game mode ran licensed teams (either controlled by the user or as a user-created team added to a league).
But now there are three main groups of gamers: the offliners (players that play Franchise and BaP), HUT fanatics, and EASHL players. WoC has licensed gear but the vast majority of players run custom setups so the licensing isn't a big add-on there, and wouldn't be missed if it disappeared.
I don't understand why EA hasn't created a "World of Sports" hub game already. Their menus and background mechanics are the same in each iteration of all the games. Why do I need to create a new Pro to play WoC every year and re-create the same character for each sport?
So here's what I want:
One HUB game - Give me the clubs version of all sports under one banner title. Let me create a pro that will transfer into each game. My club wants to play hockey tonight? We play hockey. Then for the last game when we're burned out and want to mess around in FIFA? We jump over as a squad within the same game.
No Annual Release - The hub game is a permanent title with patches and updates, but plan for generational support.
Free to Play - It's modern gaming. We all hate battle passes and we all hate loot boxes and we all hate the free to play model but that's where we live now. Give me the hub game for free and charge for season passes or custom cosmetics or however you want to monetize it.
Offline Modes - Sell "add-on" content to the hub game on a periodic (probably annual) basis to get Franchise and BAP and whatever else people play by themselves. I haven't played either mode in a while but you could follow modern gaming models where players get the online/multiplayer for "free" (with a battle pass) then the campaigns/solo modes cost money to install with the game.
In short, I'm sick of creating the same player in multiple games on an annual basis only to see my stats, abilities, and record reset on an annual basis. The NHL is huge on celebrating records and long term success but EA has wedged us all into an annual reset. I've probably played 10 rookie seasons in the NHL but I've never made it past my age 25 season because it's too much of a time investment to get that far in your career before the next title releases.
tldr EA is stuck in 2007 and needs to modernize their system.
