NHL 2K Loss Makes EA NHL Worse

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Long before Electronic Arts was involved in the big four in North America, there was a time when many developers would be assigned to make games. Football, basketball, hockey, and baseball were often represented by many advanced teams, and sometimes there would be completely off-the-wall games like NFL Blitz or NBA Street. If you grew up loving sports, the 1990s and 2000s represented an amazing time for sports video games.

It is a common misconception that EA holds some kind of exclusive contract with the NHL to make hockey games, but the truth is that there is no such contract. 2K simply stopped making hockey games due to poor sales of NHL 2K11. It’s really nice to join a bunch of dogs against EA, but the truth is that it’s the only game in town because of the market downturn, not some kind of commitment.

10 Games Hidden Gems

There are a variety of games and video games that depend on games that can do with more attention.

That said, the loss of NHL 2K represents a change in hockey video games. As a lifelong hockey fan, I’ve always found NHL 2K’s simulation style to be much more enjoyable than what EA was doing. I don’t hate the EA NHL game, and I’m probably one of the few defenders of the annual game, while also arguing that NHL 14 is still one of the best hockey games ever made.

With the end of NHL 2K, however, there is a serious void in the world of hockey video games. It’s not exactly a volume, as there are many styles of hockey video games every single year, from throwbacks in retro style to management sims, but there is one 3D game with an NHL license that aims to replicate the product on the ice, and that is the EA game.

It’s in the Game

The erosion of the NHL under EA was a slow, painful culmination that saw it transform from a feature-packed hockey sim into a game with little to do and a lot of money to spend. It’s no coincidence that the last really good NHL game came out almost three years after 2K was put on ice, as any competition EA had in the 3D hockey market was gone.

The last release of NHL 2K was 2K 11, which was Wii-only and featured Vancouver Canucks star forward Ryan Kesler on the cover. Three years later, EA will release what many consider to be the greatest hockey game of all time with NHL 14. Since then, EA’s product has been full of Team Hockey Ultimate, a heavy shedding of simple features, a greatly reduced GM and career paths, and a focus on getting players to spend more money after the initial purchase.

NHL 2K’s sharp, sharp eye for the on-ice product and its many considerations have always made it the best hockey video game to come across from EA. The teams that made those plays really understand the small, subtle things that make hockey so much fun to watch and play in a physical environment. 2K is what pushed EA to go broke every year.

The last really good NHL game came out almost three years after 2K was put on ice, as any competition EA had in the 3D hockey market was gone.

That competition also caused EA to try weird, off-the-wall things, like the creation of EA Sports Big. While I’m always interested in more simulations when it comes to sports games, I really liked the EA Sports Big banner and the games they produced. SSX and NBA Street were very different and added a much-needed dimension to the esports scene. To think of today’s EA making such a game is laughable.

Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Game Mods

EA’s unhealthy obsession with raking in as much money as possible from potential customers is well-documented, but there’s often little discussion of how that leads to a product with little to do but lots of things to buy. After the transition from the seventh to the eighth generation, EA’s NHL franchise has dropped significantly from what was available on day one.

Live the Life, an engaging career mode for past games, was released alongside GM Connected, an NHL 94 mode, a shockingly dry online environment, and more. It wasn’t long before this game that 2K shipped with a game where it felt like you could do pretty much anything, including pool hockey, epic franchise mode, Winter Classic, solid internet, and much more.

In the years since then, the status of EA and the NHL franchise has improved somewhat in terms of features and functions, but many methods are still built around making money as opposed to fun hockey activities. 2K always seemed to completely crush EA when it came to sports games at the time, but it was pretty weird back in the day.

The Art of Acting

face off between Pittsburgh and Minnesota

What 2K games really understood about hockey is that it’s complete bullshit. The chippy, unpredictable nature of how the puck moves is best represented in a 2K game, and it’s something EA games have never been good at. That’s not to say it wasn’t fun or exciting to play, especially with a group of friends, but if you wanted something that captured the chaos of the game, EA always felt like it wasn’t quite there.

There is always some stickiness to the puck, where it seems to stick magnetically to the player’s stick. In the 2K game, the puck seems to follow the logic of the real world game, where it often feels like it has a mind of its own. While 2K felt like they were trying to balance the real-life chaos of the game, EA’s gameplay always felt robotic and awkward.

The smooth 2K feel still resonates today. Circling the puck around the boards, then chasing it and feeling like you won or lost the battle based on skill as opposed to what the AI determined, just hits differently. The weighted, realistic movement adds a lot, and none of that has ever felt present in an EA game.

What 2K games really understood about hockey is that it’s complete bullshit.

2K shutting down development on any future NHL game was heartbreaking back in the day, but we didn’t feel the full impact of that until recently, as EA’s game continues to shrink every year. With no one to challenge EA, especially when it comes to minute-to-minute game design, it all feels like we’re playing a hockey game with a predetermined outcome as opposed to reacting to what’s happening.