Sources: NHL 15 team lost developers!

[CupCrazyManiac]

Sources: NHL 15 team lost developers

by Mike Straw on September 25, 2014
NHL15

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.

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.


Source: http://strengthgamer.com/news/source...st-developers/

[Nabz]

Interesting, but I'm happy this series finally hit a wall cause now they can actually work hard on making it a great game beyond just game modes to satisfy people. In terms of gameplay, like i think defense could be made to be more fun and also i use to think the commentary was so boring cuz it was the same thing from nhl07-14 same script but damn the NBC guys are so ****, not a fan of them in real life either, and then in the game there not even intense when commentating at crazy moments. And wtf they do with skill stick feels like nhl 07.

Oh well hope they make a good game next year, i hope they release game patches for gameplay improvements later this year along with w.e they were planning to do with game modes.

[speels]

Now maybe the hate for the game developers can calm down a bit and we can shift the blame to where it really belongs. If EA doesn't really want a hockey game, then get out of the way and let a company develop a game so we have something to play.

All that being said, I think they did a pretty good job missing most of the development team for 5 months.

[canucksss]

I dont know how reliable this writer is...but if its true....how pathetic is the decision of EA to pull out other developers to do other games. I dont believe that they are losing money in NHL, probably NOT MAKING MUCH as compared to others.

Which makes now more irritating to think that consumers still need to pay the same amount with less developers leading to this current condition of NHL 15. Equally irritating how they treat hockey gamers with their decision of removing some features so it could release the game on time.

I really hope that the sales would really go down hard so that they could be honest and give the NHL gamers what they deserve in 16.

[JaFFiTh]

Ehh.. No excuses. If that's the case, I feel sorry for the developers as they probably didn't sleep thanks to EA for making them work from game to game. I'm one of the unhappy customer without NHL15 and keeping it that way till they smarten up for next season.

[THESHAMISASHAME]

Quote: Originally Posted by speels

Now maybe the hate for the game developers can calm down a bit and we can shift the blame to where it really belongs. If EA doesn't really want a hockey game, then get out of the way and let a company develop a game so we have something to play. All that being said, I think they did a pretty good job missing most of the development team for 5 months.

Exactly it doesnt take Sherlock Holmes figure out something really went wrong behind the scenes with EA and not EA NHL development team because if you look good you can see all the little imersive things they added and they did a excellent while skating short handed and now we know the rest of the story ..... and hopefully they can keep adding on to what they created as gameplay and physics are all ready amazing !

[Vikes1]

Yep...the common working man seems to many times be the easy target to hit when it comes to blame.

[NeptunePirate]

That doesn't surprise me in the least, it explains the next-gen shortcomings. I'm sure next year they will come back full force, but what really needs to happen is for some competition to enter the rink. This is a perfect time for 2K or Konami to step back in the game.