NHL 08 to Feature Online Leagues

Finally. After years of waiting for Electronic Arts to catch up with its competition when it comes to online leagues (namely 2K Sports), fans have reason for celebration. We’ve learned that NHL 08 will be the first of EA Sports’ franchises to feature full online leagues on both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

For details, we asked NHL 08’s online producer Jeff Atienza about the big move to online leagues. First, why has it taken so damn long for EA to get on the online league wagon, considering 2K Sports has been at it for years?

“Last year was our first crack at NHL on the Xbox 360, and we basically started out last year with a three-year plan for our next-gen NHL franchise,” said Atienza. “In our first year, we wanted to concentrate on our core gameplay experience. NHL 08 (year two in our plan) is all about adding depth to the entire game from gameplay, to audio, to dynasty, to online. Online leagues are just one part of the online depth, and I think fans will be really happy overall with online this year.”

Last year’s NHL title, lauded for its Skill Stick innovation scored an 8.2 on 1up, an impressive showing. The new version’s move to 60 fps, along with a new skating system makes it a great candidate for online leagues. So how robust is the online feature?

“NHL 08’s online leagues don’t have the full complement of features that a typical Dynasty season would have,” said Atienza. “We are looking to add more depth to online leagues next year. But we do have full stat tracking.”

One bummer is that there won’t be player trades in NHL 08’s online leagues, but they are looking to add “a bunch of other Dynasty features for next year.”

As for the variety of leagues, it’s possible to create one that features anywhere from two to 32 teams, or any combination in between.

“The team you choose to play with is also your choice-that includes any team available in the game (NHL, AHL, International Teams, Swedish Elite League Teams or a Finnish Elite League Teams),” said Atienza. “Your league can have a combination of any of them as well.”

So why NHL, instead of one of their more popular sports? After all, the NHL no longer sets the real or video game world aflame-and hasn’t, really, since 1994. We see this as a sort of test-case that let’s EA work out the kinks on a smaller franchise before they push it into all of their sports titles (one promising sign: the early impressions of NHL 08 range between great to excellent). So why is NHL first?

“I can only speak for my game here,” said Atienza. “Online is the way of the future and we are happy to offer some compelling new online game modes and give the community what they are looking for.”

As for future sports titles, nothing is confirmed, but we’re guessing the NHL online league means all of EA’s sports games will start having online leagues after NHL 08’s 9/11 release. But maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

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not really a NHL fan but if EA is finally getting their act together the other franchises may be in good shape for the future