NHL 18 has only been out for about three months now, but plans are currently moving forward for the next release in the series, NHL 19.
The company sent out a survey on Thursday to a number of fans and EA Gamechangers about the future of the series, asking how certain features would impact the decision to purchase the game.
A member of the EA forums posted an image of all of the different questions (you can see it below), but let’s go through some of the possibilities.
There have been rumors for months that EA Sports was working towards overhauling the presentation of the game after going with the main cast of Doc Emrick, Eddie Olczyk and Ray Ferraro since the series moved to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One back in 2014.
EA teases making the broadcast presentation in the game a “cutting-edge presentation package that gives you more insight and interaction than what’s possible on TV that even includes insight into the science of the sport.”
Be A Superstar
Since coming to the current generation of consoles, the Be A Pro mode in the NHL series has been pretty much forgotten by EA Sports. The mode has been the same boring experience for the past four years, but it appears the team is finally — at least thinking about — overhauling the mode.
The survey mentions the idea of a “non-linear narrative driven by personal choice and performance.” It also mentions the addition cinematic scenes, text-based decisions, and narrative audio, among others.
Be A Pro was on the right path with “Live the Life” in NHL 14, and it’ll be interesting to see if any features from that mode make their way to a new Career Mode.
Greatest of All-Time Teams
Madden has had success with legends in Madden Ultimate Team, and it appears the NHL team wants to do the same with Hockey Ultimate Team and its popular NHL Threes. The survey teases over 500 legends from throughout the history of the NHL that would be able to be unlocked for both NHL Threes squads and HUT.
HUT is one of, if not, the most popular mode in the NHL games so adding more players to collect in the mode could only be viewed as a positive move.
UGC Customization
This is something that hasn’t been really clamored for, but could still be a very welcomed addition. UGC Customization would involve tools to create and share custom designs that would include goalie masks, rinks, and uniforms.
Scouting
Scouting has been tweaked in recent years, but NHL 19 mentions the idea of hiring scouts for your organization, and utilizing more information than ever before to make the right decisions on draft day.
Real Player Differentiation
Most players in NHL 18 feel the same. With Real Player Differentiation, each player type in the game would feel and play differently in “every area of the ice”. Differences in skating, shooting, and more will add to more variety in how players control on the ice.
While this tactic of sending out surveys to gauge interest isn’t necessarily something that’s new from EA Sports, it’s definitely interesting to see what those tasked with developing and marketing the long-running series are thinking about adding.
There was no mention of the gaming moving to the Frostbite engine, but, according to multiple people within the company, that appears to be the plan for NHL 19.
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