Electronic Arts aim to be the only developer you need when it comes to the world of sports gaming. In an effort to be the sole supplier of ice hockey filled entertainment, EA is cramming their upcoming title, NHL 15, with "truly next-generation gameplay", exciting game modes, and an overhaul to the commentary, visuals, and presentation. As per usual, a variety of different online and offline game modes will be available for hockey fans to enjoy.
Here's the short list of game modes that will be available as soon as the game is released:
• Play Now
• Be A Pro
• Be A GM
• Online Versus
• Hockey Ultimate Team
• NHL Moments Live
With NHL 15 being the first in the franchise to be available on the next-generation consoles, the development team are fully focused on delivering quality updates to come after the game's release. Title updates will be coming to gamers for free and will include community influenced fixes and changes as well as all new content, including the temporarily axed game modes.
"Temporarily axed game modes"!? — yes, unfortunately some modes will not be available to play on the game's release day. I'll leave it to EA to detail and explain the situation:
Given our commitment to build a truly new generation of hockey games for our fans, we had to make some tough design decisions. I’m writing this to let you know that despite our team’s best effort to squeeze as much into the game as possible at launch, we will not be able to deliver EA SPORTS Hockey League or Online Team Play when NHL 15 releases
Online Team Play (OTP), will be one of the modes to be included in the "content update program". The mode is almost finished, but with EA having such a high focus on a "quality experience that's stable for you, the players", there is still testing to be done to make sure the mode is in good shape once it goes live.
Also awaiting its release via content update for NHL, the EA SPORTS Hockey League (EASHL) mode has big plans in store, including the creation of a small EASHL committee made up of players of the title. EA promises to deliver an experience that will be like nothing anyone has ever seen and "better than any of us would have imagined" back when the mode was first introduced in NHL 09.
EA is very aware that fans will be severely disappointed over the exclusion of these game modes upon the title's release. All in all, EA wants the quality to come before the quantity of days that gamers will be without the game modes, which hopefully won't be too long.
Decisions like this are never easy, nor do we take them lightly. We know that there is a passionate group of fans that loves these modes and is no doubt disappointed with this news; but we also know that this same group of fans expects a high quality gameplay experience above anything else. We’re a franchise built on quality, so launching these modes without confidence in their quality wasn’t something that we were willing to do. We thank you for the passion you have for our game
NHL 15 remains set to release on September 9th for North America, and September 12th for Europe on the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.