NHL 09 Introduces EA Sports Hockey League

July 22, 2008 by pastapadre 

The secret online feature for NHL 09 has now been officially revealed as being the EA Sports Hockey League. This will be somewhat of a combination between Be A Pro mode and Online Team Play.

Along the lines of an MMO, you’ll be able to create your player and improve him through the EASHL. Teams will comprise of up to 50 users, individual and team stats will be tracked, and this will be a ranked online mode. Only two team members will be required to compete together in order to count a game, but up to the six that is allowed through OTP will be able to join in at once. Basically there could be several games for a single team taking place at once, and it allows for a lot of flexibility in being able to get into games and contribute for the team as well as build up your player.

Head over to Gamespot for an interview with producer David Littman that provides greater detail on this exciting addition to NHL 09.

Comments

18 Responses to “NHL 09 Introduces EA Sports Hockey League”

  1. Bumble14 on July 22nd, 2008 1:10 pm Quote

    WOOOOOOOW!!!!

  2. sdot on July 22nd, 2008 1:14 pm Quote

    hopefully they will get this 2 run smoothly unlike NCAA & NASCAR

    if ur NOT 1st ur LAST

  3. tim hervey on July 22nd, 2008 1:15 pm Quote

    and just like every other ea sports online feature it won’t work and they
    won’t fix it

  4. Bumble14 on July 22nd, 2008 1:19 pm Quote

    tim hervey wrote:

    and just like every other ea sports online feature it won’t work and they
    won’t fix it

    Pretty bad that EA is leaving a bad taste in just about everyone’s mouth right now. They did it to themselves.

    This feature-if it works- will be amazing.

  5. Gossennator on July 22nd, 2008 1:28 pm Quote

    so awesome…
    pasta do you know if we will be able to create more than one player for this mode?

  6. r00tabaga on July 22nd, 2008 1:38 pm Quote

    THAT WOULD BE COOL TO WORK YOUR WAY UP TO THE BIG SHOW AND EARN A CALDER TROPHY AS A ROOKIE…..MAKE AN ALL-STAR TEAM…….BECOME AN HART TROPHY………BECOME AN EVENTUAL HALL-OF-FAMER!!!!!!!!!!

  7. Been there before on July 22nd, 2008 1:39 pm Quote

    Prediction: Epic Fail

    Given EA’s track record, it is a great plan but they will fail on exectution.

  8. Zack on July 22nd, 2008 2:09 pm Quote

    Sounds good.

  9. Mike Barrameda on July 22nd, 2008 2:13 pm Quote

    You re absolutely right.

  10. Eric on July 22nd, 2008 2:37 pm Quote

    I’m pretty sure that EA’s online work on NHL last year was really solid. NHL is developed by EA CAnada, not EA Tiburon. EA Canada seems to put out quality games as last year NHL 08 was routinely called the best sports game of the year.

  11. ryan on July 22nd, 2008 5:01 pm Quote

    holy crap that’s awesome

  12. Eric on July 22nd, 2008 5:42 pm Quote

    “I’m pretty sure that EA’s online work on NHL last year was really solid. NHL is developed by EA CAnada, not EA Tiburon. EA Canada seems to put out quality games as last year NHL 08 was routinely called the best sports game of the year.”

    True. The last time NHL really disappointed me online was 05 or 06 where it was on the old XBOX. More recently, EA Canada has done fairly well online.

  13. Bukktown on July 22nd, 2008 7:24 pm Quote

    EA Canada is solid. This feature is gonna be great. Hopefully it will get more people interested in the game because it is the best sports game going right now.

  14. Xtremedunkz on July 22nd, 2008 7:40 pm Quote

    i’ve never bought an NHL game, but I am sold on this game. can’t wait to create a goalie.

  15. curry on July 22nd, 2008 8:37 pm Quote

    why can ea canada make such good strides with online play like be a pro mode for fifa and now this, and then tiburon has the fiasco that is ncaa football so far, why cant the two combine

  16. Hank on July 23rd, 2008 7:46 am Quote

    Maybe I don’t fully understand the feature, but isn’t this pretty much the exact same feature that most FPS games have had for a long time?

    It’s called clan support. Or do I not get it?

  17. Zane on July 23rd, 2008 8:43 am Quote

    EA’s NHL games are the SHIZZZZ……I am am not even that big of a fan of the sport, but the games ROCk!

  18. Phantom on July 23rd, 2008 12:31 pm Quote

    yay! let’s get all the kids who love to play WOW to like sports games by turning them into MMORPGs, and forgetting about the croud that created the sports gaming industry in the first place (sarcasm).

    then, lets divert endless amounts of resources to these areas of the games, which will likely be broken out of the box, while we leave gameplay, stat engines, and full game experience on the shelves fore next, next, next gen, where we will actually transport your mind into the actual body of a real life NHL player!

    i cannot wait…

    for this to bite the industry in the a$$.

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