NHL 15

[10spro]

Why has this incomplete game that has gotten bad reviews just about everywhere and has been out for almost two weeks not selling for under 30 bucks yet?

[videogamehockeywithdrawal]Trying to hold out until a black Friday deal.[/videogamehockeywithdrawal]

I wish you luck!

Well not quite $30, but in Canada it dropped down to $50 bucks. Still too expensive.

[10spro]

It's happy hour weekend for HUT mode games. I had one of the better games since the game came out as I enter into the online playoffs tournament. Dude has at least 6 more minutes in my end zone as I kept going to the sin bin but I keep his chances to the outside. Hits are pretty even, shots are 47-36 in my favor and I barely come out a winner in the circle department by 3 face-offs and none more important than the last one.

The other dude plays a very sound defensive game too. It's still tied 1-1 after two marathon OT sudden deaths, when I win the magic faceoff early in the third OT to my left D man as he wrists the winner. Despite the unpolished game, the gameplay is what keeps me coming back.

I had to make a quick clip of the winner.

[MizzouRah]

First update is out...

http://www.easports.com/nhl/news/2014/n ... ent-update

[Inuyasha]

Sept patch is out next gen.

[Inuyasha]

http://strengthgamer.com/news/sources-n ... evelopers/

Sources: NHL 15 team lost developers

Sources: NHL 15 team lost developers

When EA Sports announced that its NHL franchise was going to wait an extra year to make it’s debut on the next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony, many fans were both disappointed and exited.

Disappointed because of having to wait a full year, but excited for what the development team was going to bring to the franchise as it transitioned to the newer systems. Unfortunately, fans were left severely angered and disappointed when the announcement came from EA Sports regarding game modes and features that weren’t going to be included in the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game.

Gone were modes like EA Sports Hockey League, GM Connected, Live the Life and Online Team play, among others. Features like drafting for your team in Be-A-GM wasn’t available at launch and the ability to play as your AHL affiliate in the mode is gone. And that’s just part of it, but you can read more about the game’s missing features and modes here.

But why, after admitting that the team had been working on NHL 15 for two years, was the game so stripped of features and modes that had become commonplace for the franchise on the last-gen systems? Well, there is actually a very reasonable explanation for it all.

According to multiple sources close to the situation, it was lack of developers on the project that lead to the game ultimately being an extremely bare-bones project.

NHL 15 was developed by EA Canada, which is also the same EA studio that worked on FIFA as well as the newly launched EA Sports UFC franchise. The sources state that because EA Sports UFC being pushed back and delayed at one point, the decision was made by the higher ups in the company to add more hands to the team in order to get the game out.

The call was then made to pull a number of developers off of NHL 15 — in the middle of its development process — and put them on UFC to ensure that game get released in March 2014.

Then, after the release of UFC, some of those same developers stripped from NHL 15 weren’t even put back on the game. Instead, they were moved to FIFA 15 to finish up that team. Needless to say, that didn’t sit well with those working on the only hockey simulation franchise on the gaming market.

The lack of hands to work on NHL 15 ultimately lead to the decision by those in charge of the game to eliminate some planned popular features to ensure the game would hit consumers at the expected time. Should the decision to delay have been made, the sources noted that it’s unlikely that features like EASHL and GM Connected would’ve been implemented. The delay would’ve simply been to add the features that are coming via the post-launch content updates that EA Sports announced shortly after the game’s release.

If this is true, sounds like the suits at EA think UFC is bigger than the NHL. Is it? I don't follow UFC. I know it's popular but more popular than one of the 4 major sports? I can see them using the excuse of low sales for killing the NHL franchise if they think that's the best way to save money. It's been reported NHL 15 has only sold 94K copies thus far, far below the average 500K they sell during the first month after launch. Also, if they are so low on resources, then I can see NHL 16 having the same problems next year.

[XXXIV]

[vader29]

[XXXIV]

XB1 party has great sound (Hung out with the man Jimmy last night) Too bad. So sad!

I miss you man!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah the Svedka is kicking in but man it still sucks that ea s*** on us.

[Diablo25]

XB1 party has great sound (Hung out with the man Jimmy last night) Too bad. So sad!

I miss you man!!!!!!!!!!!

Son of a bitches (EA)

[XXXIV]

XB1 party has great sound (Hung out with the man Jimmy last night) Too bad. So sad!

I miss you man!!!!!!!!!!!

Son of a bitches (EA)

Not good at all.

The way the kept it a secret too...f***in COWARDS!

[Dave]

If this is true, sounds like the suits at EA think UFC is bigger than the NHL. Is it? I don't follow UFC. I know it's popular but more popular than one of the 4 major sports? I can see them using the excuse of low sales for killing the NHL franchise if they think that's the best way to save money. It's been reported NHL 15 has only sold 94K copies thus far, far below the average 500K they sell during the first month after launch. Also, if they are so low on resources, then I can see NHL 16 having the same problems next year.

Yeah, UFC has the potential to be much bigger, especially globally. Even with the leagues added to NHL, it is still really just a North American game. Even looking only at the NA, market the THQ UFC games sold significantly better than NHL.

I definitely believe what the article said. UFC was delayed once, some development/marketing bullet points completely disappeared over time (anyone remember MMAi from E3 2013?), and missed its internal Metacritic target by a mile. It took a loooong time for any real game footage of note to make it to the public and even within EA information and gameplay were more limited than usual.

I would love to know how NHL's budget this year compared to recent years. Think about the sports/genres that didn't really make the jump from PS2/Xbox to PS3/360, have to wonder if we'll see an even thinner market with the move to PS4/One.

None of the information that comes out about constrained budgets and diverted resources can begin to excuse the complete lack of communication about the missing features in NHL 15 though.

[Inuyasha]

Anyone liking the last tuner set? I think it has ruined the game for me. I liked the out of the box gameplay but now the game plays like last gen. It's slowed down a lot and the super goalies are back. I guess EA does this every year, but last gen by this time, they'd already have tuner set 3 or 4 out. I guess the people over at the EA forums and other sites complained about making the game more sim but imo this just makes it slow and boring.

[Inuyasha]

If this is true, sounds like the suits at EA think UFC is bigger than the NHL. Is it? I don't follow UFC. I know it's popular but more popular than one of the 4 major sports? I can see them using the excuse of low sales for killing the NHL franchise if they think that's the best way to save money. It's been reported NHL 15 has only sold 94K copies thus far, far below the average 500K they sell during the first month after launch. Also, if they are so low on resources, then I can see NHL 16 having the same problems next year.

Yeah, UFC has the potential to be much bigger, especially globally. Even with the leagues added to NHL, it is still really just a North American game. Even looking only at the NA, market the THQ UFC games sold significantly better than NHL.

I definitely believe what the article said. UFC was delayed once, some development/marketing bullet points completely disappeared over time (anyone remember MMAi from E3 2013?), and missed its internal Metacritic target by a mile. It took a loooong time for any real game footage of note to make it to the public and even within EA information and gameplay were more limited than usual.

I would love to know how NHL's budget this year compared to recent years. Think about the sports/genres that didn't really make the jump from PS2/Xbox to PS3/360, have to wonder if we'll see an even thinner market with the move to PS4/One.

None of the information that comes out about constrained budgets and diverted resources can begin to excuse the complete lack of communication about the missing features in NHL 15 though.

Does EA own the NHL license or they're the only company that makes the game? I know 2K said they aren't getting back into hockey but how about HB Studios or someone else?

[Jimmydeicide]

That article just makes EA more hateable. The fact they new the game was going to be bare bones and not say anything and on top of that to still have the gall to charge us full price spinning how hard it was to program for next gen.
Its all BS as we new it was.
There are some really good stuff in the demo i see , the ice degradation and snow build up, how the puck makes tracks thru that snow or when a body goes down leaves a clean spot is amazing, so well done. i was thinking of getting the game sooner than later but now there is no way im buying this unless i get a price driop.

[MizzouRah]

Anyone liking the last tuner set? I think it has ruined the game for me. I liked the out of the box gameplay but now the game plays like last gen. It's slowed down a lot and the super goalies are back. I guess EA does this every year, but last gen by this time, they'd already have tuner set 3 or 4 out. I guess the people over at the EA forums and other sites complained about making the game more sim but imo this just makes it slow and boring.

I got a 2nd update (xb1) so it seems a bit better than the first tuner release, but yes scoring is toned down a tad, but better than the 1st tuner update.

[Diablo25]

Like the way it plays but still holding out for price drop.

[Inuyasha]

I don't see a 2nd update yet on PS4. I hate this update. It really kills the fun out of the game. The gameplay is the only thing going for it this year and this first tuner really sucks. They do this every year. They will take 4-5 patches to 'get it right'. I think out of the box it was fine.

[XXXIV]

That article just makes EA more hateable. The fact they new the game was going to be bare bones and not say anything and on top of that to still have the gall to charge us full price spinning how hard it was to program for next gen.
Its all BS as we new it was.

Im surprised they didnt charge $79.99. They did take that extra year to make so f***in awesome!

Sickening they are.

[10spro]

That article just makes EA more hateable. The fact they new the game was going to be bare bones and not say anything and on top of that to still have the gall to charge us full price spinning how hard it was to program for next gen.
Its all BS as we new it was.

Im surprised they didnt charge $79.99. They did take that extra year to make so f***in awesome!

Sickening they are.

Don't be. They actually charged that for the Ultimate version in Canada and $69 for the regular version. Although, I have seen the game going for $50 lately for the regulate version because of continuous Canucks pressure on EA.

[XXXIV]

Don't be. They actually charged that for the Ultimate version in Canada and $69 for the regular version.

Class is what they are!

[Naples39]

Another new patch apparently.

http://i.imgur.com/QAySbMT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/oeE2nCZ.jpg

I don't care about the crowd graphics, but I'm sure somewhere people were complaining about that.

Good to see identification of big AI issues, although I'm not sure how effectively the patch will correct those issues.

The game is a bit of a mess (I'm speaking purely from an online play standpoint). I'm a wait-and-see type guy, but this series really needs some new direction and energy (cough*Rammer*cough).

[LAking]

Looks like EA finally has some competition again. The NHL 2K series is back...on iOS and Android.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/remem ... an-kesler/

[XXXIV]

As another friday night passes with out my favorite gaming activity of my forty eight years ....I feel I would be remiss if I did not pass on my feelings for a certain group of scum...

[Inuyasha]

Well I'm pretty much done w/ this game.

The last 'tuner set' was the biggest joke yet. They basically have given us last gen NHL 14.

Most every review site gave it low scores, but they said the one redeeming feature was the fun gameplay. Now EA has even taken that away.

I was their biggest supporter even without all the game modes, but now they've pretty much showed how incompetent they are by giving us last year's awful gameplay on next gen.

I'm shelving the game for sure now and maybe will even consider selling it. If this is how it's going to be with EA next gen, then EA should just stop making hockey games.

[MizzouRah]

Well I'm pretty much done w/ this game.

The last 'tuner set' was the biggest joke yet. They basically have given us last gen NHL 14.

Most every review site gave it low scores, but they said the one redeeming feature was the fun gameplay. Now EA has even taken that away.

I was their biggest supporter even without all the game modes, but now they've pretty much showed how incompetent they are by giving us last year's awful gameplay on next gen.

I'm shelving the game for sure now and maybe will even consider selling it. If this is how it's going to be with EA next gen, then EA should just stop making hockey games.

I just posted something similar over at OS. What a joke EA is.. come out with something different as far as game play goes and then start releasing patches and tuners that change the whole game play. Out of the box I enjoyed it quite a bit, after two patches and tuners.. it's horrible.