Fansided

5 features we still want to see from EA Sports’ NHL series

By Nick McAdam

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 08: (L-R) Patrick Kane, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Jonathan Toews pose during the EA Sports NHL 11 Launch Event outside the NHL Powered by Reebok Store on September 8, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Thomas Nycz/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 08: (L-R) Patrick Kane, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Jonathan Toews pose during the EA Sports NHL 11 Launch Event outside the NHL Powered by Reebok Store on September 8, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Thomas Nycz/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The endless cycle of Electronic Arts sports video games releases continues into the 2018-19 season with NHL 19.

The highly anticipated — or maybe not so — NHL set of games from EA Sports is going to hit the market in the fall yet again. It will mean $60 or more out of your wallet depending, on where you live. So what new features can you look forward to as you cough up that cash?

The spring brought some excitement for avid sports gamers as EA released some of their planned features for NHL 19, which is something it does around that time every year. At the NHL Awards ceremony, P.K. Subban was announced as the cover athlete.

If the obvious hasn’t been stated enough already, Electronic Arts has gotten away with selling consumers the same product each season. Surprisingly, it still works out for the company as fans pile on the dollars each season for the updated rosters and changes in the ways players move; which is the long way of saying that EA changes basically nothing from year-to-year.

This all goes to mention that the company will still try to suck more money out of players through the use of modes such as Ultimate Team, where people whip out their wallet to spend real money on in-game cards to make their team better.

EA has the situation down to a cue. Less work equals more money for the company. What are customers supposed to do? The answer has, and always will be to hope for the same thing the following season.

Nothing compares to the likes of ESPN NHL 2K5, and EA probably knows that by now. However, it’s still good to keep some hopes alive for the only hockey game on the entire market.

That’s why the following list will compile five wishes that should be added to the NHL series, but probably won’t even be thought on for the next 20 years.

LAS VEGAS, NV – JUNE 20: (L-R) P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators is revealed as the cover athlete for EA Sports’ “NHL 19” by Steve Campbell and Ryan Russell, known as Olly Postanin and Jacob Ardown from “On the Bench,” during the 2018 NHL 2018 NHL Awards presented by Hulu at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on June 20, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV – JUNE 20: (L-R) P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators is revealed as the cover athlete for EA Sports’ “NHL 19” by Steve Campbell and Ryan Russell, known as Olly Postanin and Jacob Ardown from “On the Bench,” during the 2018 NHL 2018 NHL Awards presented by Hulu at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on June 20, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

5. Get Creative with the Cover

This is a huge trade off that has always been covered up by keeping the tradition going. Every single season, EA picks one player it feels has deserved enough recognition both on and off the ice to showcase on the cover of the game, and hopefully sell to an array of different markets.

What’s the trade off with the cover? Fans will only see one thing or the other. We either get a great athlete on the cover with lame designs in the background, or the same boring superstars with something actually happening in the photo.

Every year that EA coincidentally put the duo of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane on their cover, some action was happening in the picture and the background. NHL 11 featured Toews shooting with explosive details in the background, while NHL 16 had the captain holding the Stanley Cup in front of a faded image.

The trade off is obvious in this scenario; nobody really enjoyed have Toews and Kane on the cover repeatedly. It got old and rather obvious that EA was just trying to make some extra dollars in order to appeal to the rising hockey market in Chicago.

The flip side of the coin sees a different player on the cover, but nothing going on in the background. It’s almost as if they stuck a colored board behind Subban and the photographer then said “do that celebration you always do.”

What’s the fix? Incorporate something called art and an eye appeal to the cover. How many years will players be celebrating or shooting on the front of a hockey video game? Instead, show players punching each other, or big hits going on. This would not only appeal to the avid NHL gamer, but the casual fan that thinks that’s all that goes on in hockey; physical play.

It’s as simple as putting an action on the cover and putting some slick designs to finish it off. EA, for several years, still hasn’t managed to grasp that concept.