I'm just going on what I heard...
One thing I noticed is most of the sports games have been like this as they make the adjustment
to next Gen. The usual news cycle has been completely different for almost all the games and I
think the reason for this is because the companies are trying to get everything they can till the
very end and don't want to advertise anything they can't deliver.
Almost all the sports games were lackluster or missing tons of things from old gen in year
one on next gen. I'm assuming that the game producers are having a hard time adjusting
to the new technology for some reason and don't want to release modes that are faulty.
As for me personally I haven't bought an EA NHL game since 97 Sega Genesis and I really like
the demo and the new game and plan on getting this game. As for the modes that are missing
they don't interest me so I really don't care.
I've bought every NBA 2K game since it came out in 1999 at launch and am fed up with
them and won't be getting it at launch this year as they've lost my trust.
Every year I give the Fifa and Madden demos a try but they don't interest me enough to buy.