EA SPORTS NHL 24 Unleashes the Intensity of Hockey With All-New Exhaust Engine and Physics-Based Contact

[TheLostSwede]

Electronic Arts Inc. is creating the most intense NHL game yet with EA SPORTS NHL 24, coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on Oct. 6, 2023. Colorado Avalanche superstar defenseman Cale Makar, whose world class on-ice skills exemplify the type of hard-checking and game-changing features that will be a part of EA SPORTS NHL 24, has been named the cover athlete for this year's game.

NHL 24 feels like hockey and brings the rush and fatigue of high-pressure games to life. The brand-new Exhaust Engine - powered by Frostbite - includes the Sustained Pressure and Goalie Fatigue systems to let players experience concentrated moments of intensity that hockey is known for. Through the Sustained Pressure System, offensive players who keep pressure on in the attack zone are rewarded and will trigger the Sustained Pressure perk, lowering their opponent's attributes for a limited time and creating more space for movement and setting up plays. With the Goalie Fatigue System, the more pucks you put on net, the more fatigue the opponent's goalie will experience. This will affect the netminder's ability to react to shots as they wear down over time and upwards of 75 new goalie animations will help bring this in-game storyline to life.




With overhauled physics and animations, Physics-Based Contact will revolutionize physical contact and deliver realistic body checks like never before. New animation-based reactions create big moments at any point in the game, and allow players to open up more turnover opportunities with bigger checks. For those that like to get physical, players can now break the glass and send their opponent to the bench.

"This is a game made by hockey fans, for hockey fans, and bringing the full intensity of hockey to our gameplay was a major focus for us this year in NHL 24," said Mike Inglehart, Creative Director at EA Vancouver. "With the new Exhaust Engine system and gameplay features that really capture the physical nature of hockey, NHL 24 delivers realistic body checks and a deeper defensive toolbox full of more choice and tactics that bring a whole new level of immersion to the franchise."

In addition to high-stakes gameplay, EA SPORTS NHL is more connected than ever before with enhanced cross-play coming to NHL 24. Within Hockey Ultimate Team and World of Chel, players can now play with and against players across same-generation Sony and Microsoft consoles.

With enhanced gameplay features that allow players to take their skills to an all-new level, there was no better cover star for this year's game than the multi-talented Cale Makar whose vision, dynamic puck abilities and total control on the ice is represented in the on-ice improvements seen in EA SPORTS NHL 24. Cale Makar is one of the league's most exciting players and has already racked up numerous accomplishments in his young career, leading the Colorado Avalanche to a Stanley Cup championship in 2022 and taking home the Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the most valuable player of his team at the conclusion of the playoffs.

"I am honored to be on the cover of EA SPORTS NHL," said Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche. "NHL 24 represents everything I love about hockey - it is fast-paced, physical and a lot of fun. I can't wait for fans to get their hands on the game to feel the intensity of NHL 24 for themselves."

Powered by EA's Frostbite engine, EA SPORTS NHL 24 is packed with features, including:

All-New Gameplay Features: A suite of new gameplay features brings an unprecedented level of control to NHL 24. With the new Exhaust Engine, players can experience a complete revamp of the EA SPORTS NHL gameplay experience that rewards extended offensive events and attack zone time, adding a dynamic new layer of authenticity and excitement to the game. Once the in-game Sustained Pressure System is triggered, a visual meter will indicate that Full Pressure is active resulting in the beneficial Adrenaline effect for the offensive team and the challenging Pinned effect for the defending team. The new Goalie Fatigue System affects the netminder's ability to react to shots as they get worn down over time, which encourages players to constantly keep up the pressure and get more pucks on the net. Total Control Skill Moves completely refresh the control setup and make highlight-reel moves more intuitive and accessible, while the Vision Passing System remaps face buttons to teammates, allowing for more direct passing and the ability to pass anywhere at any time on the ice.

Updated Human Goalie Controls make playing in goal more accessible and intuitive, with features such as the new Tethered Control System allowing players to slide back and forth to make saves and then auto-returning back to a centered position. Additionally, the new Instinct System gives players the opportunity to guess the location of the shot for a bonus on their save attempt.

Hockey Ultimate Team: EA SPORTS NHL 24 has introduced the all-new HUT Moments, which lets players recreate and share classic moments in hockey history and today's biggest plays. NHL 24 also introduces a new real-time objective-tracking system based on item types, teams, players, and on-ice actions, all while updating player progress in-game. The new system will enable players to keep active track of their tasks and objectives, allowing them to stay focused on the exciting on-ice action.

World of Chel: This latest iteration of the EA SPORTS NHL franchise also delivers the most dynamic Word of Chel yet, with enhanced cross-play giving players more ways for players to connect, better matchmaking and improvements to Creation Zone to give players more customization. An update to EASHL Playoffs introduces an authentic, streamlined do-or-die 16-game path to the title, allowing players to earn Ranking Points as they make their way through the bracket. NHL 24 introduces the WOC Battle Pass, which lets players play their way through action-packed seasons at free and premium levels, and WOC Storefront updates give players even more items to outfit their character with as well as access to exclusive new premium bundles of custom characters, player banners and more.

Modernized Presentation: With all-new presentation updates, players will feel more immersed than ever in the game of hockey. This year's presentation introduces Flex Moments, a broadcast that feels more alive than ever with over 75 new goal celebration animations, camera angles, lighting effects and the ability for players to map their celebration to their controller so they can flex how they want when they want. New waves of event reactions support significant stoppages, rushes down the ice, Exhaust Engine peaks and dramatic comeback moments, making this by far the most energetic Chel crowd to date. Plus, Dynamic Rink Boards expand the augmented reality broadcast and communicate key on-ice moments, from delayed penalties, goal summaries, stat milestones and vanity backdrops to accentuate those big Flex Moments.

Fans that pre-order NHL 24 will get a variety of bonus in-game content. The EA SPORTS NHL 24 X-Factor Edition includes the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 or Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game, three days of early access, 4600 NHL Points, exclusive Cale Makar player item, HUT Power-Up Icon of choice and WOC Battle Pass XP Modifier x5. Players can also get a pre-order loyalty offer to receive a 10% off pre-order of the NHL 24 X-Factor Edition. All pre-order editions and information can be found here.

EA Play members can get more out of NHL 24 with three days of early access, and member-only rewards throughout the season. Visit the EA Play website for more information.

Developed by EA Vancouver and EA Bucharest, EA SPORTS NHL 24 will be available on Oct. 6, 2023 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

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[ExtremeDH]

A reskinned FIFA and sold as a new game
$$$ Greed !

 

[evernessince]

Yuck, an EA sports title. Likely filled to the brim with monetization, tons of bugs, poor game-play, and a lack of features so they can sell you on the next year as always.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Really surprised EA are still using the Frostbite engine. I thought they had no one left in house that really knew how to use it.

Cant wait for the games release so we can all witness the amount of graphical bugs and glitches the game will come with.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Wait, no PC?? 'da fk...?!

 

[cvaldes]

Wait, no PC?? 'da fk...?!

LOL, this is a joke?

EA last released a PC version of its NHL game in 2009.

The absence of a PC version of this game should not be a surprise to anyone who plays sports videogames.

The PC gaming market is a fraction of the console and mobile gaming market. Worse, the NHL is a two-country pro league of a sport that traditionally is played in places with very cold winters. It's not a sport where Nigeria, India, or Brazil is a perennial contender.

The NHL itself has been one of the poorest managed professional sports leagues. With four labor actions in the span of about 22 years, it has left a very sour taste in the minds of sports consumers. At one point, the NHL's American television contract was limited to OLN (Outdoor Living Network), bookmarked by fishing shows. Unbelievably pathetic.

So you're talking about a tiny fraction of the gaming market (PC) for a geographically niche sport with a long history of league mismanagement and fan discontent, a sport played by a relative handful of people on this planet growing up. No kid in Rwanda played pickup hockey on a frozen pond when they were little.

The NHL is not FIFA.

 

[enb141]

Wait, no PC?? 'da fk...?!

Yep, no NHL for PC since 2010, they still think people only have consoles to play.

 

[evernessince]

Yep, no NHL for PC since 2010, they still think people only have consoles to play.

To be fair, you can play the old NHL games and get a better experience than the newer games. They might just assume they can't dupe enough PC players for it to be worth it.

 

[cvaldes]

Yep, no NHL for PC since 2010, they still think people only have consoles to play.

Oh quite the opposite. EA is very aware that PCs are used for gaming. Same with mobile.

Electronic Arts got started as a maker of computer games in the 1980s before the IBM PC. Their first venture into console gaming was in 1990 with NES later branching out to 3DO and other console platforms. Computer gaming is in EA's DNA, that was how they started.

At some point in the late 2000s, they probably did a cost analysis of the NHL title by platform and decided that it didn't have enough customers or sales velocity to continue developing for PC.

Note that EA continued to release FIFA and other sports franchise series on PC as well as console platforms. Even with a name change, EA Sports FC is still available on PC. On the mobile side, it's still called FIFA Mobile (undoubtedly under a different licensing contract).

It was clearly a business decision, not some sort of weird platform discrimination.

Thanks for the laughs though. Much appreciated!

 

[enb141]

To be fair, you can play the old NHL games and get a better experience than the newer games. They might just assume they can't dupe enough PC players for it to be worth it.

Yes but you don't have updated players.

Oh quite the opposite. EA is very aware that PCs are used for gaming. Same with mobile.

Electronic Arts got started as a maker of computer games in the 1980s before the IBM PC. Their first venture into console gaming was in 1990 with NES later branching out to 3DO and other console platforms. Computer gaming is in EA's DNA, that was how they started.

At some point in the late 2000s, they probably did a cost analysis of the NHL title by platform and decided that it didn't have enough customers or sales velocity to continue developing for PC.

Note that EA continued to release FIFA and other sports franchise series on PC as well as console platforms. Even with a name change, EA Sports FC is still available on PC. On the mobile side, it's still called FIFA Mobile (undoubtedly under a different licensing contract).

It was clearly a business decision, not some sort of weird platform discrimination.

Thanks for the laughs though. Much appreciated!

Even Sony is releasing games for PC, so whoever did that analysis that PC is not worth it, they should fire him.

 

[evernessince]

Yes but you don't have updated players.

You do with this tool: https://www.artemkh.com/nhl/nhlview/

 

[cvaldes]

Even Sony is releasing games for PC, so whoever did that analysis that PC is not worth it, they should fire him.

Sony is not EA and vice versa. This discussion pertains to EA's new NHL release.

With all likelihood, the decision to cancel NHL on PC was a group decision made by EA senior management, not some middle manager whose team did the actual cost analysis or some summer intern. And it probably happened after a couple years of net loss. After all, they're the ones responsible for adding or deleting revenue streams.

It sounds like you've never worked for a Fortune 500 company. That's how things get done by the big boys. It's not like someone picked up the Magic Eight Ball and canceled NHL for PC because it said "outlook not so good." Some people in Fortune 500 companies actually have a Magic Eight Ball on their desk. But it's a deliberate gag, they know that's not actually how decisions get made.

(Fun fact: The Magic Eight Ball has 10 positive answers, 5 non-committal answers, and 5 negative answers.)

Look, we get it. You're extremely bitter than EA canned NHL on PC fourteen years ago. It was probably cancelled while devs were still working on the 2009 game.

But be real, it was a business decision, not some sort of anti-PC jihad or witch hunt. And all the whining about it here on TPU isn't going to bring back NHL for PC. Basically there weren't enough of people like you in 2008. It's over.

Feel free to start your own Change.org petition drive to bring back NHL to PC gaming. If you post it here, I'll even sign it.

 

[enb141]

You do with this tool: https://www.artemkh.com/nhl/nhlview/

Nice, now they just need to find a way to update those old NHL graphics with better resolutions/textures.

Sony is not EA and vice versa. This discussion pertains to EA's new NHL release.

With all likelihood, the decision to cancel NHL on PC was a group decision made by EA senior management, not some middle manager whose team did the actual cost analysis or some summer intern. And it probably happened after a couple years of net loss. After all, they're the ones responsible for adding or deleting revenue streams.

It sounds like you've never worked for a Fortune 500 company. That's how things get done by the big boys. It's not like someone picked up the Magic Eight Ball and canceled NHL for PC because it said "outlook not so good." Some people in Fortune 500 companies actually have a Magic Eight Ball on their desk. But it's a deliberate gag, they know that's not actually how decisions get made.

(Fun fact: The Magic Eight Ball has 10 positive answers, 5 non-committal answers, and 5 negative answers.)

Look, we get it. You're extremely bitter than EA canned NHL on PC fourteen years ago. It was probably cancelled while devs were still working on the 2009 game.

But be real, it was a business decision, not some sort of anti-PC jihad or witch hunt. And all the whining about it here on TPU isn't going to bring back NHL for PC. Basically there weren't enough of people like you in 2008. It's over.

Feel free to start your own Change.org petition drive to bring back NHL to PC gaming. If you post it here, I'll even sign it.

Of course was a selling point issue that made them to stop releasing NHL on PC, but what I'm saying is, now days things have changed, even microsoft and sony are releasing their games on PC, back in the NHL PC cancelation dates, Microsoft had Halo, Forza, and a few other games exclusive for Xbox, Sony had 0 games for PC, now both have games for PC, Microsoft have all their games available on PC, and Sony has their flagship games released on PC (a few years later).

So my point is, whoever did the NHL cancelation back 13 years ago, should do a new analysis to new data not base their decision on whatever happened 13+ years ago.

Change.org had NHL PC petition since NHL 2009 so definitively EA doesn't reads Change.org petitions.

 

[cvaldes]

Of course was a selling point issue that made them to stop releasing NHL on PC, but what I'm saying is, now days things have changed, even microsoft and sony are releasing their games on PC, back in the NHL PC cancelation dates, Microsoft had Halo, Forza, and a few other games exclusive for Xbox, Sony had 0 games for PC, now both have games for PC, Microsoft have all their games available on PC, and Sony has their flagship games released on PC (a few years later).

So my point is, whoever did the NHL cancelation back 13 years ago, should do a new analysis to new data not base their decision on whatever happened 13+ years ago.

Change.org had NHL PC petition since NHL 2009 so definitively EA doesn't reads Change.org petitions.

For sure someone at EA has seen the Change.org petition if it has been there for fourteen years. The simplest explanation is there aren't enough signees.

They can tell the overall interest in the NHL by looking at console game sales. If the console versions showed significant increase both in game sales as well as player hours over several seasons of releases, they would probably conduct an analysis to decide the feasibility of returning to the PC platform. More likely, they would add a mobile game before they would add a PC game and then gauge whether or not the mobile game sales would merit further expansion to PC.

Without a doubt, the EA senior management conducts regular reviews of each of its major franchises (Apex, The Sims, Fifa/FC, et cetera) to assess franchise health and determine if there is any change necessary in terms of attention, budget, headcount, whatever. The sports games all have licensing agreements with their respective leagues so naturally when those contracts approach their end, that's a natural moment to review. For sure there's a cost associated with using the official league branding, NHL lawyers made that crystal clear to EA lawyers.

In the end, it was a business decision. They aren't required to list all of the reasoning behind. But shareholders will assume that continuing the PC version of the NHL game was not favorable in increasing shareholder value. EA is a business not a charity.

If you want to know the truth behind it, buy the company and ask your new employees (and the board of directors) why NHL on PC was cancelled. You can fire anyone who isn't truthful. You could e-mail EA right now but most likely you'll get a reply full of corpspeak that says nothing.

 

[evernessince]

Nice, now they just need to find a way to update those old NHL graphics with better resolutions/textures.

A new tool for changing textures is actually currently in the works as well. Should be sweet when it comes out.

 

[n-ster]

Back in the day, me and a bunch of my friends here in Canada bought the PS3 and PS4 exclusively to play NHL lol... As terrible as the games were, it is still the best hockey game. The market and money the NHL attracts is just so tiny compared to the other big sports leagues

 

[Flydommo]

I am actually one of those who bought a PS3 and PS4 just to play EA's NHL series. Maybe I'll get a PS5 for NHL 24 provided the game gets good reviews. Haven't played the game for four years but I can feel that itch again....