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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NBCUNIVERSAL UPFRONT EVENTS — 2018 NBCUniversal Upfront in New York City on Monday, May 14, 2018 — Red Carpet — Pictured: (l-r) Hilary Knight, Jocelyn Lamoureux, Meghan Duggan, “U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team” on NBC Sports Group.– (Photo by: Cindy Ord/NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
NBCUNIVERSAL UPFRONT EVENTS — 2018 NBCUniversal Upfront in New York City on Monday, May 14, 2018 — Red Carpet — Pictured: (l-r) Hilary Knight, Jocelyn Lamoureux, Meghan Duggan, “U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team” on NBC Sports Group.– (Photo by: Cindy Ord/NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) /

3. International Play, Women’s and College Hockey

This one is really shocking. By now, you’d think that EA would incorporate at least one of these features into its game. Nope.

There has to be some credit given to the company as it did institute the World Cup of Hockey into NHL 17, but they left it as a tournament play and something players couldn’t bring online. In turn, it just wasn’t a big hit.

The problem here is licencing. EA needs permission to use international, women’s and college teams in its games. It’s something that takes time to do, but something says that EA has probably made no effort to try and grasp those items. Give credit to FIFA, however, as it stole the Champions League license right from the fingertips of the PES series.

Even as international teams are still in the game with their off-brand items, they’re still left out of game modes such as Be A Pro. Why? Any players dream is to represent their country on an international level. A pro created in a video game is meant to play with their club repeatedly, but they can’t get called up to their country?

To add off of that, FIFA did a great job pushing women’s football into the game. It even added the option of being a female in the player campaign, which is a great feat for the franchise.

College hockey is the biggest stretch in this wish because of what happened to EA’s NCAA College Football games. From an outsider’s understanding, that situation could have been avoided with the use of file sharing while using random names on the surface for young athletes. It’s what NBA 2K has been doing recently, and it would be really cool to see the NHL games do the same.