This is the list that's going around and please correct me if I'm wrong, not really being disputed based on what is in the EA Access version. It's Madden 06 level awful in my opinion, though I didn't want to believe it at first:

Here's a running list from the EA Forums of missing thing:

-No EASHL - EA Sports Hockey League. Custom team League online play for up to 12.

-No OTP - Online Team Play. Up to 12 with stock teams.

-No NHL 94 Mode

-There are no offline seasons in HUT - Hockey Ultimate Team, your player card CCG roster.

-There are no tournaments in HUT

-You cannot play a friend in HUT

-No Winter Classic

-No GM Connected

-No Shootout (Shootout mode. There are shootouts.)

-No Live the Life

-No be a CHL Pro

-No be a NHL Pro

-Being drafted is now just a random assignment to a team, no way to influence when you are drafted

-You cannot draft players in Be A GM Mode

-No fantasy draft in Be A GM Mode

-No be a Legend Mode

-No Season Mode

-No Tournament Mode

-No Playoff Mode

-No Battle For The Cup

-No Creation Zone

-No Edit Team

-No Edit Player

-No Customize AI

-No Build Your AI

-No Create A Play

-No Custom Music

-No simming between shifts in Be A Pro Mode (So you are locked to a single player and watching most of the game play out off the bench instead of simming to when you are ready)

-No Custom Cameras

Online Team Play is getting patched in. Past that, EA are offering "improvements" so far. Is this the reality of high end sports games that only sell 700k or so? Is The Show a fluke/not profitable? I thought they turned a corner with Madden 25 but the budgets aren't nearly comparable.

When they announced this was the case a couple of weeks ago it really bummed me out. The nhl games are one thing I look forward to yearly and was hoping that the current gen would be better than this since they didn't push it out last year. Reading interviews with the producer and stuff, just seems like a horribly managed product, Skipping it this year, maybe I'll be back if they ever put the modes back in that I actually play.

That sucks. I knew there was some stuff missing, but that's a huge list. I don't play online, only Be a GM mode usually, until I find out how broken it is. That's annoying if there's no Season mode or Playoff modes. Bah, this game should be $20.

I cant see them releasing it without season mode.

Wait is this the actual game or what is offered in the ea access trial?

Either way that's pretty lame. Don't buy the game if it's the full one or I told you so about ea access if it's about the access trial

Super bummed about this. Only mode I play is EASHL, as it's the most like real hockey, and most enjoyable for me.

The worst part of the whole thing is them lying by omission. They've been asked about modes and details time and time again and public press events, and they've refused to answer questions. The fact that the details about the game modes were only released 2 weeks before release leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

Really wish 2K would come back.

Uh what does the game actually have then? That list basically means there is no game. Should be a crime if they release it in that condition.

If NBA 2K14 on current gen was able to look as good as it did and (mostly) contain all of the features present in the last gen versions as a launch title,there's really no excuse for NHL to be missing this many features a year later.

Keep in mind that the publisher behind NHL 15 was also responsible for inflicting NBA Live 14 on the world.

True, but I mean, the NHL games are typically really good, so you'd think with an extra year they'd be able to achieve feature parity between the current and last gen versions. After pretty much all the sports games of the past year on current gen were full featured or near enough, I figured we weren't going to see a repeat of last gen when it took several years for sports games to get back all the features that were lost in the transition.

I don't believe half of that list. There is way they put out a game with only one mode non HUT mode. And take away all that. This must just be whats missing from the demo/ea access version only.

NHL 15 has been a disaster for EA, and its not even out yet. To think they had an extra year to put this all together for the X1/PS4 and they can barely release a game where you can actually play hockey is terrible. There might be less features in the current gen game than there has been since NHL 98 for PC (the first NHL game I played).

I have no idea what they were doing with that extra time they had. It doesn't even look much better or play that much differently(from trying the demo). I was looking forward to finally playing EASHL on my ps4 but then EA happened. Of course they were able to get HUT in there to get that micro-transaction money but couldn't get all these other modes in. Definitely skipping this year.

I find it hard to believe there won't be a season mode when it hits its full release.

Of course it is, how else are they going to squeeze you for a yearly purchase over the next 7 years?

I'm with Archer, I know EA can screw up a lot and thus people are quick to believe things like this but this isn't take the pool out of the Sims, this is take the game out of the NHL and I just don't see EA screwing up that particularly bad.

Seems like a fishy list. whats left? Exhibition games? Theres no game at all according to the list. Are you sure thats not just a demo?

@splodge: yea it sounds like the trial for ea acess to me.

This is from the EA access, yes. There's no language calling that version a trial or demo that I've seen, however. I would love to be proven wrong because this is a total bummer.

Be a Pro mode (my favorite :( )is completely unplayable without simming, why even have it in the game. No one is going to sit there and watch pretend hockey from the benches.

This game sounds like a total mess, which is a real shame because I enjoyed the demo.

Sports games are usually the showcase titles for new hardware, so needless to say this is disappointing. I wonder if something is going on internally at EA, because all their games have been in rough shape this year....

I'm with you guys. This doesn't sound at all like the full game.

Maybe they have a day 1 patch planned? But you'd think if this was not the full experience they'd say something by now what with all the backlash.

Regardless of what's in the final version, to actually release the game like that in the "EA early access" version is awful. If it's supposed to have more features, say so. If not? What the fuck are you doing, EA?!

The Kotaku article does not have the "No Season Mode" bit so I'm assuming that's available. So it's up to at least Bases Loaded standards.

http://kotaku.com/eas-new-hockey-game-missing-crucial-features-fans-upse-1631260576

There is absolutely no reason at all to buy this game for 360/PS3 if you already own NHL 14. Even if you don't have NHL 14, you are going to be paying LESS and getting MORE features by buying NHL 14 instead of NHL 15. My main mode has usually been Online VS, however, I refuse to pay $70 for a fucking roster update with stripped down features. I'll be sticking to HUT in 14 until NHL 16. You would have to be a complete mindless idiot, totally irresponsible, or have wipe-your-ass-with-dollar-bills level of wealth to even consider giving EA your money for this incomplete product.

Even if I had a next-gen current gen console, the amount of stripped out features and restrictions on being able to play with friends is incredibly baffling to me. It's bullshit laziness/mistakes that could and would destroy a franchise if any competition existed for the NHL games. NBA Elite/Live vs NBA 2K is the perfect example of what happens.

Here is some proof at how unforgivable of a product they're releasing for the older consoles:

And here is the full list of features NOT in NHL 15:

An additional note is that you cannot play Online VS with guests (ie. you and friends on the same console vs opponent online).

There are also an additional bunch of careless mistakes that can be found on Twitter and Reddit such as fans wearing shirts with misspelled team names (Fleyrs) and typos in GM Mode.

The only positive out of all of this is that at the very least NHL 14 shouldn't become a wasteland when 15 has been out for a couple of months.

Apparently this is all true. Guys on operation sports who have full retail copies of the game already are saying this is true. A bunch of topics going off about it. Guess I am done with this franchise. Too bad 2K stopped making an NHL game.

@sterling said:

That's all I needed to hear. If OpSports are shitting on this then I know better than to buy it.

I cancelled my pre-order, like many others have. Time for EA to learn the hard way. At least maybe Jeff will get to read the next great EA Apology letter on the Bombcast (SimCity, NBA Live, Battlefield 4)...it never ends with EA.

Also....spelling errors?! Jesus.

I thought it was bad enough that the game was stuck at 720p on ps4 and still had framerate issues, but seeing the full list of missing features seals the deal. What a bummer, was really looking forward to this.

Oh, also, fuck Doc Emerick.

Scaahhrrs!!!

so, if all that stuff is missing, what exactly is there in this game? Please don't tell me it is all this Hockey Ultimate Team garbage. No Season, no Be a Pro, no edit player... that leaves very little reason for me to get this.

I have a bit of a problem with these lists in that they only tell one side of the story. Are things being replaced with something different? Does the game still feel complete?

I mean I totally understand people cancelling preorders and stuff but it seems lie, a self fulfilling prophecy that you won't like the game..

I'm not an nhl guy so maybe this stuff is needed for the game not to suck.

No and no, at least not compared to the last gen version.

The fully automated drafting in Be A GM mode is insane, and not simming your bench time in Be A Player is ridiculous. But at least the cloth physics on the jerseys will look good. Jerseys! Whoooo!

Has anyone ever tried out the custom roster files that are available at operationsports?

This is usually the case for the NHL games. This isn't the case this time for NHL 15. Stuff is just straight up removed.

If you're not an NHL guy, your best choice is to stick with NHL 14. There is more than enough in the game to find at least something you're really into. NHL 94 Anniversary mode is the best simple/casual offline fun you can have. If you're looking for something for X1/PS4, it would probably be best to wait until NHL 16. Also since EA got rid of their whole Online Pass thing, you could probably pick up a used copy fairly cheap if you don't already own the game.

I have not but people seem pretty happy with them. The only problem is that those roster changes would only reflect offline game modes and I primarily play online.

It would be lovely if there was another side, this is just a super stripped product.

I've been mad all weekend about this. This is bullshit.

Alex's take on this game is going to be interesting, to say the least.

Is Hockey still in the game?

If this were a console launch version of the game I could see cutting them some slack. But they took an extra year to make this game and still somehow managed to cut almost everything that put the NHL series on par with the NBA2K series.

I was pissed about amazon not letting me use points to pre order games but now I feel I owe them a thank you for stopping me.

The hockey part feels pretty good. Goalies are still hilariously weak to the 45 degree backhand, but other than that it's pretty good.

@pr1mus: The core gameplay is still solid, but this is a $70 product. Knowing all the facts and still buying this game is not only ignorant it will hurt the quality of the series moving forward. We need to send the right message to EA by having standards.

Post release plans released by EA HERE

Still not buying it.

Patch plan summary:

Sept- Playoff mode, BAP coaching while on bench, 3 stars, HUT hud changes

October- Online team play, GM drafting ( A kind of on-the-clock mode, which explains why normal menu drafting may have been cut)

EA had two choices, both of which we'd measure in Years to Achieve:

1) Use the old engine on new consoles while the New Engine Team reached parity

2) Use a new engine on new consoles and be feature light

I think it's really lame the attitude people are taking to this. Just seems like such an obvious development reality. I'm boggled by people's expectations, but I guess I should just get with the times and either expect nothing of gamers or too much of developers.

Everyone's hopes were up after Madden 25 was a great year-to-year feature complete upgrade to the new generation, and after the Madden 06 fiasco we all expected EA Sports to be better than this. Sure the game only sells 700k and art assets are expensive, but that's what HUT card money is for.

But then I remembered this is the NBA Live studio and then... welp.

@sterling: I mean who knows. I don't know why they would lie. Either way never buy a game based on promised content.

What does Madden have to do with this? The Madden series and the NHL series are developed by different studios. I also don't see why Madden 25 would get your hopes up. Were you excited by them sticking with the same engine and continuing with the minor tweaks every year? Both Madden 25 and NBA 2k14 were just pretty versions of last gen games. There's a lot more to be excited about with the NHL series. Sure some stuff is missing, and I get that that missing stuff is vital to some people, but after a few games you'll see that a ton of work went into the game and it's a far better game to actually play than what they've previously released.