NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

[tessl]

Re: NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

The 2014-2015 NHL season is now a week old.

The NHL's only console videogame, Electronic Arts' NHL 15, currently features rosters that are six weeks old.

September 3 is the last time that NHL 15's rosters were updated, leaving many NHL teams with missing players, incorrect lines, wrong jersey numbers, unaccounted for injuries, and in the case of the St. Louis Blues, outdated uniforms.

Simply pick an NHL team, and you're bound to discover several significant inaccuracies in their NHL 15 lineup; for example:

Only centers John Tavares and Brock Nelson have put up more points for the 3-0 New York Islanders than defenseman Johnny Boychuk. But if you want to launch bombs from the point with Boychuk in NHL 15, you'll have to use his old team, the Boston Bruins, because their October 4 trade with the Islanders still isn't reflected.

The Nashville Predators' points leader, Filip Forsberg, remains stuck on the Predators' minor league affiliate (the Milwaukee Admirals), preventing him from being used in Online Versus Play.

Significant injuries to first-line players like Evander Kane, Pavel Datsyuk, and Mike Fisher don't show up in Online Versus Play, either.

On the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, NHL 15 has already received several gameplay tuners and two title updates, including one that even patched in an offline Playoff mode.

The popular Ultimate Team mode also continues to release special "Player of the Game" and "Team of the Week" cards on a regular basis, and offer one or two "Mega Pack" promotions per week.

Yet a basic roster update, which would entail trading a few players, signing some free agents, calling up the correct prospects, accounting for recent injuries, and setting the right lines, is still missing from NHL 15.

The official explanation from NHL 15 producer, Sean Ramjagsingh, is that a roster update "is being worked on," and that developers "had to wait for all the rookies to play a shift before we could put them in."

Even with those rookies' legal issues in mind, couldn't the hundreds of returning NHL veterans have been fixed for the league's opening week?

As of today, every NHL franchise has played between two to five games, leaving gamers wondering what the holdup is at this point.

Update: EA has officially responded with a tweet mentioning a roster update is coming soon.

I suspect it has something to do with the season starting only a week ago. MLB the Show didn't release their first roster update until April 7. The reason is because they can't use the name and likeness of a player until they are in the union. The game has a legal agreement with MLB and the union. If they used the name/image of a player who isn't in a union - see O'Bannon and what the lawsuit(s) have done to NCAA games.

I just bought the NHL game and I don't know it for sure but I suspect this is the case with NHL. They wait until the season starts and then it takes them a week or so to get an image, player attributes etc for the new players they have to add.

[bigwill33]

Re: NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

Hardly anyone needs to be added, the prospects are mostly in this game as EA has the rights to the Euro and Junior leagues. It is simply a matter of adding them to NHL teams in most cases. No re-rating, no updating pictures or cyber faces, and no new information is being added here. This is something that a non-EA employee could have probably done in about an hour or so, yet it is this way every year.

They could update the rosters after the first two days and most people would be happy. You would get all of the NHLPA guys in on their proper teams then as they are now part of the union. Then you could go back and update the roster as many times as needed over the course of the season... if you had a competent company with people who were able to meet deadlines working on your game.

Instead we get a few half-assed updates over the course of the season. Things with special teams units being completely wrong, or wrong-handed players, and players that have come back from injuries weeks ago still not being available for online play.

A roster update is the very least a company can do to keep their game "updated" and relevant. The EA NHL product has historically been amongst the worst in providing this to their "valued" consumers.

[Hayman19]

Re: NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

This game desperately needs a "Roster Vault" a la MLB The Show. Anyone who plays that game knows that the rosters the community edits are incredible and highly detailed.

They need to add this for next year and give us full control over player edits as well. Let us edit every single player and team in the different leagues and that would all but solve the roster issues. A better create a player than they have had in recent years is needed as well.

[tessl]

Re: NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

Hardly anyone needs to be added, the prospects are mostly in this game as EA has the rights to the Euro and Junior leagues. It is simply a matter of adding them to NHL teams in most cases. No re-rating, no updating pictures or cyber faces, and no new information is being added here. This is something that a non-EA employee could have probably done in about an hour or so, yet it is this way every year.

They could update the rosters after the first two days and most people would be happy. You would get all of the NHLPA guys in on their proper teams then as they are now part of the union. Then you could go back and update the roster as many times as needed over the course of the season... if you had a competent company with people who were able to meet deadlines working on your game.

Instead we get a few half-assed updates over the course of the season. Things with special teams units being completely wrong, or wrong-handed players, and players that have come back from injuries weeks ago still not being available for online play.

A roster update is the very least a company can do to keep their game "updated" and relevant. The EA NHL product has historically been amongst the worst in providing this to their "valued" consumers.

Again, I only recently purchased NHL 15 and am not familiar with this game, but I am very familiar with MLB the Show. They released their first live roster update April 7 - a week after opening day and a month after spring training begins. Players suspended or injured are not suspended or injured in their updates, they are available to play. Minor league players and foreign players with no MLB experience are not included in their rosters.

It seems to me you are being overly critical relative to what other popular sports games do with roster updates. First roster update seems to be about on the same schedule as MLB the Show and I suspect the Show has a larger development staff focused only on ps3/ps4 whereas NHL is developing the game for 4 platforms.

[jcas007]

Update would be nice so you can start gm mode with all the players on the right teams

[bigwill33]

Re: NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

So you tell me in one breath that you essentially have no idea what you are talking about with the NHL series, but then go on to explain to me how I am pretty much entirely wrong. Okay...

All that needs to be said is this; NHL 15 released on Sept. 9th. It is now Oct. 17. There has not been one roster update past the initial release rosters that were put out. And historically speaking, there have usually only been updates after the initial roster update to start the season and then maybe once around December or January, and then finally once more after the trade deadline.

I know Madden and The Show gets the updates weekly. If Ovechkin goes down tomorrow with a 2 week long injury (which is like 3-5 games) and that is included in this upcoming update, you may not get to play with Ovi in an online match until 2015!

Not to mention that by the time this update drops the lines will be half incorrect and the ratings are awful in general.

[BCDX97]

I edited the rosters myself to play offline, so it's no that big a deal to me.

Except that you can't change numbers (or captains) and some guys are skating around as #1 and it looks dumb as hell. This needs to be patched.

[tessl]

Re: NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

So you tell me in one breath that you essentially have no idea what you are talking about with the NHL series, but then go on to explain to me how I am pretty much entirely wrong. Okay...

All that needs to be said is this; NHL 15 released on Sept. 9th. It is now Oct. 17. There has not been one roster update past the initial release rosters that were put out. And historically speaking, there have usually only been updates after the initial roster update to start the season and then maybe once around December or January, and then finally once more after the trade deadline.

I know Madden and The Show gets the updates weekly. If Ovechkin goes down tomorrow with a 2 week long injury (which is like 3-5 games) and that is included in this upcoming update, you may not get to play with Ovi in an online match until 2015!

Not to mention that by the time this update drops the lines will be half incorrect and the ratings are awful in general.

I understand your frustration but what do you suppose the size of the developer staff is for the Show and Madden compared to NHL?

Madden first week sales 1.3 million.

MLB first week sales 300,000.

NHL first week sales 90,000.

Comparing NHL to those games to NHL is like comparing a 5 man rowing crew to a guy rowing solo.

[dovuto86]

Does anyone have a problem on the PS4 version where sometimes when you have an open lane to shoot the puck and flick the shot stick that the player doesnt shoot? It doesnt happen everytime or in every game but when it does happen it costs me great opportunities. I played 4 games last night and in one game it happened to me. I had breakaways, wrap arounds, etc and it refused to shoot the puck. I only had 6 shots that game bc of it. Hopefully its fixed with a patch.

[gator3guy]

Re: NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

Does anyone have a problem on the PS4 version where sometimes when you have an open lane to shoot the puck and flick the shot stick that the player doesnt shoot? It doesnt happen everytime or in every game but when it does happen it costs me great opportunities. I played 4 games last night and in one game it happened to me. I had breakaways, wrap arounds, etc and it refused to shoot the puck. I only had 6 shots that game bc of it. Hopefully its fixed with a patch.

Which roster update are you talking about?

[THESHAMISASHAME]

Re: NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

This game desperately needs a "Roster Vault" a la MLB The Show. Anyone who plays that game knows that the rosters the community edits are incredible and highly detailed.

They need to add this for next year and give us full control over player edits as well. Let us edit every single player and team in the different leagues and that would all but solve the roster issues. A better create a player than they have had in recent years is needed as well.

Im with you on this and separate turners for on and offline but they dont even have a edit player or a in game slider save so I wouldnt hold my breath on a roster share but you think it would be a easy copy from Madden .

Well heres hoping and you figure with all that went wrong this year they would at least be able to manage things like this better because its not even funny anymore almost sad especially with how promising the game came out physics wise .

[THESHAMISASHAME]

Re: NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

Does anyone have a problem on the PS4 version where sometimes when you have an open lane to shoot the puck and flick the shot stick that the player doesnt shoot? It doesnt happen everytime or in every game but when it does happen it costs me great opportunities. I played 4 games last night and in one game it happened to me. I had breakaways, wrap arounds, etc and it refused to shoot the puck. I only had 6 shots that game bc of it. Hopefully its fixed with a patch.

I noticed this alot now after the update a few weeks ago that I never had happen before and my screen also gets choppy frame rate like Im locked in a animation and can't respond for that moment.

[ManiacMatt1782]

Re: NHL 15 Hasn't Updated Its Rosters Since September 3rd

Roster updates for NHL were always few and far between. Why would anyone think they would get more updates when there is much less product this year? Noone should be shocked by this. An update every 6 weeks would vastly exceed my expectations.