A New NHL Series game.

[BigBadAss33]

Simple question to everyone on this forum

Everyone agrees that EA is an absentee landlord just collecting rent from an overpriced leaky roofed apartment. So i have a question

(1)WHY is there no other software company willing to make a better HOCKEY game?

We all know we are really paying for the names of players and team names. So who would really care if you have a guy named STANLEY FROSBY # 87 on the Pittsford Emperors. I personally like the game 5 years into the future when most of the future players are retired.

Lets here your opinions?

[Madwolf]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

It's all about Market size. The video game Hockey Market is small, and if you want to tap into it you're going to need the NHL license and a AAA effort to snag enough of the small market to be profitable.

The first year or two the of the game are going to make it tough to earn your money back, and unfortunately the guys running these companies are only interested in what rakes in maximum profits. Diving into the hockey market just means taking a risk for a small potential return. In the current economy of Big Data, and 0 risks that's just not going to fly for most people in charge of marking share holders money.

EA Sports downsized the NHL team a few years ago when they started the UFC team, and has never really looked back. There is very little reason for them to give the Vancouver based team anything to work with for NHL when they're making money hand over fist on FIFA and can just dump even more resources into that instead.

Sure, they could use the FIFA profits to help out the NHL Franchise, but then you're not thinking like a modern businessman.

[GlennN]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

Money makes the world go 'round! If there was money to be made, there would be another hockey game. Me? I don't need real player names (I play franchise, so eventually my league is full of fictional players). I don't even need real teams. But, the casual fan wants real players and real teams. Gotta have the licenses if you want to pitch to the masses. And, with the cost of developing games going up, there is just too high an entry barrier. Face it, hockey, as much as I love it, is a niche sport, and sales of a videogame version are just never going to be great.

[Bucketman]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

I'm with GlennN as I really don't care what the name on the jersey says. I've always been into the franchise stuff, building teams and all of that. It would take some dedicated hockey people to put out a good platform that users could edit and no licences required. Sad thing is apparently nobody has the money and/or dedication to do it. I'm all for buying early access versions and things like that to fund a good idea, but there really is nothing around.

[thedudedominick]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

I've always wished ea would partner with one of the sim sports games on PC and just have them work on the franchise while the current EA team focuses solely on gameplay and online.

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[Bucketman]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

It's all about Market size. The video game Hockey Market is small, and if you want to tap into it you're going to need the NHL license and a AAA effort to snag enough of the small market to be profitable.

The first year or two the of the game are going to make it tough to earn your money back, and unfortunately the guys running these companies are only interested in what rakes in maximum profits. Diving into the hockey market just means taking a risk for a small potential return. In the current economy of Big Data, and 0 risks that's just not going to fly for most people in charge of marking share holders money.

EA Sports downsized the NHL team a few years ago when they started the UFC team, and has never really looked back. There is very little reason for them to give the Vancouver based team anything to work with for NHL when they're making money hand over fist on FIFA and can just dump even more resources into that instead.

Sure, they could use the FIFA profits to help out the NHL Franchise, but then you're not thinking like a modern businessman.

While this is all true, I think the Madden team has all the resources they need but they can't get the game right either.

[BleacherCreature]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

Everyone agrees that EA is an absentee landlord just collecting rent from an overpriced leaky roofed apartment.

Greatest analogy ever




Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[Splitter77]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

I was hoping instead of making super mega baseball 2, that metalhead software was gonna make a super mega hockey.

But you would think by now there would be at least another hockey game out there.

[SeattleBattleCat]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

Without me knocking on this game too much because I do enjoy it, if there was another game out there that was playable and even better quality, but didn't have any NHL rights to it, yes I would absolutely buy it. I would bet, that if such a game became a global seller, it wouldn't be too long before the NHL rights were offered to it.
But that seems to be a stretch of the imagination at this point.

[thedudedominick]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

After looking at sales figures, it's clear why we wont see an amazing NHL game or hockey game.

The highest selling year for hockey video games in general was the NHL 10/ NHL 2k10 games. Sold a little over 2 million total copies across all platforms.

Lets compare that to EA Sports biggest games FIFA and Madden.

Just for 18, Madden has sold about 3 million copies. Madden 17 about 6 million copies.

FIFA 18 has sold 11 million copies, and FIFA 17 sold 16 Million.

There's no reason for any company to pump money into a sport, that even at it's peak, only sold 2 million copies.

This is only copies sold. Can you imagine how much more money they make on ultimate team with that many more people buying the games? Unfortunately video games are big business now and money talks.

FIFA sells about as much in a year as NHL does over 7 or 8 years. There's no reason for EA to put time and resources into a game that wont get them a return. It's just not profitable and we will probably never see another company willing to risk it.

Only 2 NHL games have individually broken 1 MIL copies sold. NHL 99 on PS1 and NHL 2002 on PS2.

[Northernwolf]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

An alternative to what EA is making would be nice.

I dont know if EA has the sole license for NHL ATM. I belive that it is non exclusive? Maybe im wrong.

Anyways.. an alternative would be welcome.

Im not even in the typical NHL market (European, not in a country that has ever been very good in hockey).

An alternative that has more options could compete with EAs product at this point. Also if this Alternative was made with a focus on being available on platforms like Switch you could reach different market parts perhaps?

[Northernwolf]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

@thedudedominick

Thanks for sharing. Sales and market wise I think NHL could do far better. But I think the issue is that you have a bad spiral at NHL development now.

Small sales = small dev team = small product
Than multiply this by each year and you will just go in minus.

I think it would be beneficial for the EA NHL series to start becoming a bi-annual game. A longer dev cycle and bigger changes in the game = better possibility for sales.

If the market is oversaturated - you need to start look for ways to meeting the market - or find new ones.

[Bucketman]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

Soccer is a global sport that is easy for anyone to try, no equipment or ice needed, just the ball. No sport will ever catch that, but hockey has a large following in Scandinavia, eastern Europe and north America. I'd like to believe that there would be buyers for another game. EA:s exclusivity for the NFL and NHL? has done nothing but bad for the market and the games could be so much better with some competition.

[lions67]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

Sales for NHL sucks because the game sucks.
Year after year of the same thing yet somehow managing to get worse as it goes along is the MAIN reason why sales suck.
Like someone said, we don’t even need the licence , just make a solid game and people will follow .
I would suggest looking at HB Studios and their golf game vs EA’s golf game. The Golf Club2 is superior to that Rory disaster and people are starting to take notice.
I don’t see why it can’t happen for NHL.
I would love if SAN Diego Studios would take a crack at making the game.

[CDN_MTN_BEAR]

Re: A New NHL Series game.

Sales for NHL sucks because the game sucks.
Year after year of the same thing yet somehow managing to get worse as it goes along is the MAIN reason why sales suck.
Like someone said, we don’t even need the licence , just make a solid game and people will follow.

This is 100% spot on, mate. And if anyone has played NHL '20, well, the term "sucks" is a drastic understatement.

As a veteran of this series, since NHLPA Hockey' 93, on SNES, I am absolutely appalled at how this game is on the current generation of consoles. It's lazy, with gimmicky and useless crap, the gameplay is the worst that I've ever seen it, and it's a mockery of the great sport and game of hockey.

Bottom line, the automation garbage has to go, as it's taking a considerable amount of fun and enjoyment away the gamer.