The NHL season is a long grind that lasts six months, and EA Sports wanted to give hockey fans the chance to win the Stanley Cup without the 82-game commitment in NHL 23 in a brand-new feature that allows players to customize their Franchise mode. It's a great addition that makes the mode more palatable for many players, but EA Vancouver has missed a massive opportunity by not including online functionality in NHL 23's Custom Seasons.
Announced in a developer diary-style video on YouTube, Custom Seasons give players the ability to tweak the framework of an NHL season, shortening the length from the standard 82 games to whatever length the player wants in NHL 23. Fans can also change the teams in the league, the structure of the divisions, and the playoff format, with anything from the standard best-of-seven format to a single elimination tournament. MLB The Show 22 has a similar feature, but it offers players the opportunity to invite their friends or anyone and have every team be player controlled, even allowing the use of Diamond Dynasty teams in the leagues, while NHL 23 is single-player only and does not include Ultimate Team compatibility.
The NHL Series Struggles With New Innovations
EA Sports is focused on giving players more control in creating their own experience, with priority being placed on the type of creativity that NHL 23 cover athlete Trevor Zegras brings to the Anaheim Ducks. That focus on creativity and freedom within the game was a driving force in the creation of Custom Seasons, just as it was in additions to the World of Chel, online play, and adding women's players to Hockey Ultimate Team for the first time ever. Despite the game's slogan of "Better Together," NHL 23 is missing an opportunity to give gamers more ways to play together by not including online functionality in Custom Seasons.
NHL 23 suffers from a few disadvantages to begin with, so an unforced error like not including the ability to have online leagues in Custom Leagues is pretty disappointing. EA Sports already releases its yearly NHL release in the midst of a loaded schedule of October video game releases, going head-to-head with Gotham Knights, Overwatch 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and another sports game in PGA Tour 2K23. The release makes sense because it coincides with the start of the NHL season, but it puts pressure on EA Vancouver to deliver a quality, innovative product that will get the attention of its fans and make them want to choose it over other heavyweights.
On top of the release schedule placement, the NHL series often lags behind its sports game peers like Madden 23, FIFA 23, and NBA 2K23 when it comes to innovation and adapting new technology. NHL was the last EA Sports series to adopt the Frostbite engine, and NHL 22 was the only major EA Sports title in 2021 to not include cross-play, meaning that players who were early adopters of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S were essentially punished with a much smaller player pool and longer wait times just weeks into the release cycle. Giving players more easy ways to experience the game together would strengthen the player base and retain fans; making Custom Leagues able to have multiple people online would have gone a long way towards that.
Connected Franchise modes are incredibly popular in Madden 23, and in all likelihood will be in 2023's EA College Football game as well for one reason more than any other - the short length of the season in that sport. With 82-game seasons in hockey and basketball, keeping players engaged over the long-term tends to be more difficult, but with a custom build, the season could be tailored to be much shorter and more appealing for many busy players. The NHL series had GM Connected in the past, but the mode was deserted prior to NHL 15 due to a lack of engagement with the mode and hasn't been brought back since. If EA Sports is really focusing on a tagline of "better together," now is the time to bring online leagues back.
NHL 23 is scheduled to release on October 14th, 2022 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.