I'll Buy As Soon As I Can

[BKL]

As soon as it's available for purchase, I'll be buying.

[Savoie45]

Dito...as the only NHL licensed game on PC and one of the few deep hockey titles on pc I will always support this game, because the last thing I want is for it to not have enough to support and end up going away. I don't think most understand how small the hockey gaming community is and how difficult it is for a hockey title to be successful against all the other sports titles and the few other hockey titles as well.

[boscoJJ]

Originally Posted by Savoie45

Dito...as the only NHL licensed game on PC and one of the few deep hockey titles on pc I will always support this game, because the last thing I want is for it to not have enough to support and end up going away. I don't think most understand how small the hockey gaming community is and how difficult it is for a hockey title to be successful against all the other sports titles and the few other hockey titles as well.

On the downside, This make NHL EA cannot be on pc but anyway

[Savoie45]

Originally Posted by boscoJJ

On the downside, This make NHL EA cannot be on pc but anyway

Hopefully EA will pull their heads ouf one day put their NHL game on pc, but yeah it would likely kill sales for any other hockey game on pc since the casuals want the visual flair that EA Hockey offers.

[drummerJ99]

Originally Posted by boscoJJ

On the downside, This make NHL EA cannot be on pc but anyway

I think EA knows the PC modding community would make their game a 100 times better, and that's why we will never see EA NHL on pc. Heck we can barely get EA to focus and work on franchise. LOL

[northjersey]

who cares about EA, that's always 99% arcade and less than 0.5% sim
give a hand to Jeff and his small team on getting updates as well as answering everyone's emails regarding issues with their save

i'm more likely than not to buy FHM10, a full listing of changes/new features would tempt me more towards purchasing than staying with 9

[hurricanekevin]

I had the "talk" last night with my wife. Usually I buy the game every other year but I'll be buying this year just to create a promotion/relegation league among other features.

[yawntuff]

The game doesn't have a large enough player base on console to even justify thinking about it. Absolutely dwarfed in comparison to other EA Sports games. As much as I hate to insert logic into these discussions because EA sucks, there were 11 million people on FC24 in the first week and Madden broke sales records this year. I would bet NHL having less than 1 million copies sold all year, probably more like 500k. On the online versus screen right now it says a little under 18,000 people online.

[Savoie45]

Originally Posted by yawntuff

The game doesn't have a large enough player base on console to even justify thinking about it. Absolutely dwarfed in comparison to other EA Sports games. As much as I hate to insert logic into these discussions because EA sucks, there were 11 million people on FC24 in the first week and Madden broke sales records this year. I would bet NHL having less than 1 million copies sold all year, probably more like 500k. On the online versus screen right now it says a little under 18,000 people online.

Yeah and that's what scares me about people being so pessimistic and not supporting FHM, because I'd hate to have the one licensed hockey on pc possibly go away because people wanted it to be more than what the team had the resources to make it. Not saying that will happen, because I honestly don't know how successful the franchise is year in and year out. I am sure though they don't have near the resources and funding available to them that OOTP has, as it's a game that's a decade ahead in terms of development and a more popular sport in general.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand and believe that people should ask for better when they are paying for a product every year. However, I think expectations tend to run a bit high when it comes to the amount of improvements that should be made every year. I just started playing the game with FHM 4 and I'm happy with the number of improvements made to the game since then. Not to mention, the devs are very active in trying to help the community with issues while updating the game througout the year.

[drummerJ99]

Originally Posted by Savoie45

Yeah and that's what scares me about people being so pessimistic and not supporting FHM, because I'd hate to have the one licensed hockey on pc possibly go away because people wanted it to be more than what the team had the resources to make it. Not saying that will happen, because I honestly don't know how successful the franchise is year in and year out. I am sure though they don't have near the resources and funding available to them that OOTP has, as it's a game that's a decade ahead in terms of development and a more popular sport in general.

Don't get me wrong, I fully understand and believe that people should ask for better when they are paying for a product every year. However, I think expectations tend to run a bit high when it comes to the amount of improvements that should be made every year. I just started playing the game with FHM 4 and I'm happy with the number of improvements made to the game since then. Not to mention, the devs are very active in trying to help the community with issues while updating the game througout the year.

I don't support games just because it's a sport I love. Haven't bought the EA NHL game since 2022 for example. And before that was 19.


I agree to a extent but it seems there's very little communication between the two sides. It's almost like the games are made by two different companies.For example there's a few things like the lineup screen that works awesome on OOTP that for some reason FHM so far has not incorporated.

[northjersey]

Originally Posted by yawntuff

The game doesn't have a large enough player base on console to even justify thinking about it. Absolutely dwarfed in comparison to other EA Sports games. As much as I hate to insert logic into these discussions because EA sucks, there were 11 million people on FC24 in the first week and Madden broke sales records this year. I would bet NHL having less than 1 million copies sold all year, probably more like 500k. On the online versus screen right now it says a little under 18,000 people online.

I was at Gamestop yesterday, and got a good laugh when I noticed that NHL24 was being sold preowned

[renojedi]

Originally Posted by drummerJ99

I don't support games just because it's a sport I love. Haven't bought the EA NHL game since 2022 for example. And before that was 19.


I agree to a extent but it seems there's very little communication between the two sides. It's almost like the games are made by two different companies.For example there's a few things like the lineup screen that works awesome on OOTP that for some reason FHM so far has not incorporated.

The game is pretty good each year and they do several updates (to include new content) each cycle so it is well worth the money. It a solid product that is responsive to the consumers. Then there is EA that promises updates that fall short of what they promised and their focus on on-line play results in the changing the game for their worse with their tuners and updates to mainly stop exploits that affect their online player base.

It will be interesting to see if the focus on on-line starts to hurt OOTP for offline players as it did with EA. Companies have gotten addicted to easy money (micro transactions, baggage fees, upgrades that used to be free, etc).

I do agree there are things in OOTP that I would love in FHM (ability to arrange tiles on the team home screen, printing options, team photos, updating jerseys in real time, editing player history, etc.) When FHM came out, it borrowed a lot from OOTP but maybe the game code has gone in such different directions they can't just port over items that have been in OOTP for years.

[Savoie45]

Originally Posted by drummerJ99

I don't support games just because it's a sport I love. Haven't bought the EA NHL game since 2022 for example. And before that was 19.


I agree to a extent but it seems there's very little communication between the two sides. It's almost like the games are made by two different companies.For example there's a few things like the lineup screen that works awesome on OOTP that for some reason FHM so far has not incorporated.

Well EA NHL is a much bigger game in terms of popularity and it’s funded by it’s online modes. The game doesn’t even need to sell massive numbers to make its money back anymore. I understand your point of view, but I definitely don’t want EA to be my only source for hockey gaming or any sport I enjoy so I do my best to support the little guys out there as long as the effort is there.

[jdhockey83]

Originally Posted by northjersey

I was at Gamestop yesterday, and got a good laugh when I noticed that NHL24 was being sold preowned

NHL 24?

Oh you mean NHL 09 v16

[northjersey]

Originally Posted by jdhockey83

NHL 24?

Oh you mean NHL 09 v16

nope I did a double take when I saw it on the shelf, but it was NHL 24 for PS5, guess the owner didn't like it

[jdhockey83]

Originally Posted by northjersey

nope I did a double take when I saw it on the shelf, but it was NHL 24 for PS5, guess the owner didn't like it

lol I just meant that the changes to the game have been so minimal year to year since NHL 09 that I consider it updates to the same game. there really hasn't been a lot of meat and potatoes features since then, at least for someone looking for a franchise experience over online versus or "World of Chel"

[boscoJJ]

Originally Posted by jdhockey83

NHL 24?

Oh you mean NHL 09 v16

do you mean NHL 09 is the most recent NHL ea that is good

[drummerJ99]

Originally Posted by jdhockey83

lol I just meant that the changes to the game have been so minimal year to year since NHL 09 that I consider it updates to the same game. there really hasn't been a lot of meat and potatoes features since then, at least for someone looking for a franchise experience over online versus or "World of Chel"

I mean the same can be said about any yearly sports game really, from OOTP to NBA 2k. What was the massive change in FHM 9? NCAA?!? Do that many people really care about NCAA hockey? What's the massive change so far announced for FHM10?

[Savoie45]

Originally Posted by drummerJ99

I mean the same can be said about any yearly sports game really, from OOTP to NBA 2k. What was the massive change in FHM 9? NCAA?!? Do that many people really care about NCAA hockey? What's the massive change so far announced for FHM10?

I think that's the problem in gaming in general, but especially sports games. People expect massive changes and improvements, which is honestly unrealistic. Especially when you consider the size of the FHM development team. With EA the biggest reason for lack of big changes is because if it doesn't bring in extra revenue, it's not really worth the extra time.

All that said, the biggest improvements to FHM 10 would be the improved custom league options, the player portal in NCAA, and the added Media aspect. Though I really like the trade options now and being able to shop draft picks finally.

[drummerJ99]

Originally Posted by Savoie45

I think that's the problem in gaming in general, but especially sports games. People expect massive changes and improvements, which is honestly unrealistic. Especially when you consider the size of the FHM development team. With EA the biggest reason for lack of big changes is because if it doesn't bring in extra revenue, it's not really worth the extra time.

All that said, the biggest improvements to FHM 10 would be the improved custom league options, the player portal in NCAA, and the added Media aspect. Though I really like the trade options now and being able to shop draft picks finally.

So one out of those three actually affects the officially licensed part of the game. So why not save some money and ditch the NHL license? We can always mod them in afterwards.