While we wrote extensively about NHL 15 (Xbox One, PS4) before, during and after launch, it's meaningful to look back at where the game stands in the series, especially in the context of other peers in the genre. As disappointing as the game was for those who were wanting a complete next-gen hockey experience, it managed to soldier on, selling relatively well and maintaining some level of community through several patches. None of those things fixed the overall incomplete nature of that product, but it started the baby steps towards a better future for the series.

My review of NHL 15 described the "cognitive dissonance" I had with the game. I generally enjoyed the on-ice product, with some caveats — and the new presentation showed some flash, especially in the crowds — but the lack of meaningful ways to play with friends (no EASHL or GM Connected) and major omissions within existing modes (Be-A-GM, Be-A-Pro) left a lot to be desired. As a fan of what the NHL series has done before, I felt that NHL 15 wasn't a fair product to release to the public, especially when it was so obviously constricted by new console tech issues and a rigid development schedule.

But clearly the game still resonated with a decent amount of the fanbase, as there is a vocal community of people who are still supporting the product, regardless of the available features. The realities of development clearly didn't matter to some people as long as the on-ice product worked for them. What a truly curious year for the series. It was a product that seemed like it would benefit so much from new technology, but then that kind of became a side story to the gameplay vs. features debate.

Critical Response

With a Metacritic rating of 59 on Xbox One and 60 on PS4, it was clearly a down year for the NHL franchise. The funny thing about rating scales though is that this kind of score doesn't mean the game was bad. I even reiterated in subsequent pieces about NHL 15 that I felt the game did some good things, and it still counts as "average" on our scale. It's a setback from what we're used to, most definitely, but it doesn’t mean the game is devoid of value for anyone. Personally speaking, I still play the game, but the lack of ways to play and missing features have drastically altered who I can play with and how I can play. About six people I know who would normally buy the game didn't do so this year, and that affects how I interact with the product.

It was intriguing seeing a range of sites and mags come to similar conclusions about the game, as many critics from all different strata of sports knowledge had similar sentiments towards NHL 15.

Giant Bomb had this to say:
 

Polygon also felt the product was light on features:

Rich Grisham, host of the Press Row Podcast and the person who reviewed the game for GamesRadar, had this concise summation:
 

Even though the tone of their review was similar to many others, EGM chose to look at the glass as half full:
 

Clearly a lot of other reviewers felt the same disappointment that I did. And if it's frustrating for the fans, critics and consumers of NHL 15, I can only imagine how frustrating it is for the development team. They clearly want to make a good hockey product, especially since they are the only one out there, and they're going to need to channel some of that energy into subsequent games.

Sales

While VGChartz is hardly a complete picture of sales for a game, it gives us a rough estimate of how NHL 15 did. Across the four platforms, it sold approximately 1.25 million units, with about 750k in unit sales happening on Xbox One and PS4. This is obviously just an estimate, as it doesn't take into account bundles and digital sales. That being said, we can probably assume that the game plateaued at about 1.5 million sales overall, with maybe around one million sales on next-gen platforms. Adding to this, the game has been recently added to Xbox One's EA Access service, where subscribers can download the full game for free from "The Vault."

Then again, game sales don't account for the whole story, as HUT downloads supply a steady stream of revenue for EA. It's hard to truly know how much the NHL series makes on this sort of thing, but this quote (via IGN) from EA should give you an idea: "Digital growth, particularly around its Ultimate Team services, continues to see monumental success for EA. 'By emphasizing player engagement and our digital live services, we’ve grown revenue, expanded gross margins and delivered EPS well above prior year and our guidance," said Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen.'"

While sales below one million on new consoles were probably a direct result of the critical and fan response to the game, the overall sales and HUT revenue likely made the game a push in terms of financial impact. Who knows if this is something that EA planned for in the console transition, but it's clearly a scenario that would be untenable for the franchise going forward.

Patches

For EA's part, they've updated NHL 15 a couple of times with some content updates as well as with a few roster and tuner updates. A lot of these updates added "new" features and some returning elements from previous years, and some of them just tweaked gameplay sliders to rejig the gameplay for offline and online play.

The first major content update provided some features that probably should've been there at the outset, including 3 Stars, coach feedback in Be-A-Pro, playoff mode and some HUT usability improvements. This update was released in September.

The second major content update added a revised NHL Entry Draft for the Be-A-GM mode, where the user could call timeouts during their three-minute decision to pick a player. Trades could be proposed during this time. The update also brought about the return of Online Team Play. OTP in NHL 15 only supports ten players, so no goalies, and it doesn't allow for matching up with friends (easily). This update was released in October.

Roster updates have occurred at basically a monthly pace for NHL 15, but player ratings have been a bit of different beast. As OS's Jayson Young has outlined, the roster/ratings situation has been pretty spotty from day 1 of release, and that's a tough pill to swallow in the current next-gen sports reality, with lots of games reflecting current conditions, attributes, injuries and statistics.

Community

The NHL 15 community seems relatively active still, especially when compared against a more focused product like EA Sports UFC. Users are continuing to interact with the HUT marketplace and leaderboards, as well as on the EA Sports forums. Activity on the EA forums is always bubbling on a daily basis, and even our own OS forums have plenty of feedback and speculative topics regarding the series.

Online team play has also given the game a shot in the arm, as the mode allows for at least some approximation of the multiplayer hijinks that were available back in NHL 14. On Xbox One, I've always been able to find a reasonable selection of OTP matches, and the same goes for standard one-on-one play, as there are usually several thousand players in the online ecosystem at any given time.

With the absence of EASHL and GM Connected, I've also found less of my time with versus play and OTP hampered by spam moves and frustrating tactics. People clearly still want to win, but I've noticed less erratic behavior in the community as compared to other years. Then again, other users may be experiencing something different.

Looking Ahead

One has to think that things can only get better for the NHL series, especially considering all of the lessons learned and feedback that's been given on NHL 15. Hockey fans want to have a product that they can get behind, and it's going to require a more fulsome effort than what was delivered last September.

The fear is that this kind of regression will become a common thing when a developer changes their technology or learns on a new console. My hope for the NHL dev team is that this is something they'll be mindful of as they develop future iterations of the game.

What will NHL 15's legacy be? I certainly think that's changed slightly as EA has updated it with a few extra features. Still, the critical response and sales of the game, while not completely damning, probably sent a clear enough message to EA that the path NHL 15 walked was not an ideal one.