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In the sports gaming world, it's a natural process for the older-generation games to take a back seat while the newest year's release is optimized and promoted by the company. Electronic Arts is taking a step forward in putting its NHL titles from nearly a decade ago on the shelves for good as part of several EA announcements made over the weekend.
On June 6, EA will be shutting down online servers to multiple NHL games, including NHL 14, NHL 15, NHL 16, NHL 17, and NHL 18, across all platforms. The unfortunate news means that all online gaming modes, including Be A GM and NHL Threes, will be available to play for another three months before closing its doors for good.
On the EA service updates page, it's made clear that due to the effective games reaching an all-time low in player activity, the sustainability of maintaining the servers for these games is no longer viable. Players will still have the option of playing all offline modes, but the online format will no longer be available to its player base. With the uncertainty of providing an excellent online experience along with the yearly release of new titles, it was only a matter of time before this decision came into effect. Luckily, the retro NHL 94 anniversary mode introduced in NHL 14 is an offline feature, making it possible that it'll be playable after the server shutdown.
The massive list of games facing the same type of shutdown goes to show that as online gaming evolves and brings to life new installments, the older titles get ultimately hit with the unfortunate circumstance of becoming irrelevant in the minds of the gaming community. It's a sad note nonetheless, as fans of the older franchise to this day enjoy playing with their friends, both personal and online, in some of the older titles that offer modes not made available in the newer versions. Some may even prefer the feel of NHL 16 and the variety of features they brought back that weren't available in NHL 15. If players want to play online, they'll have to rely on NHL 19 up until the current era to get their fix.
With the closure of servers for the five NHL titles, fans will no longer have access to online achievements. These include NHL 14 achievements, NHL 15 achievements, NHL 15 (Xbox 360) achievements, NHL Legacy Edition, NHL 16 achievements, NHL 17 achievements, and NHL 18 achievements. The playing time for each installment is estimated at 200 hours, leaving very little time for players that are jumping into the older titles for the first time. Fans of the alternative style provided by NHL 18's Threes will have limited time to enjoy their bone-crushing hits and endless, chaotic fun before it's shelved for good.
NHL 22 is available to play on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
Source: Gamepur