The NHL franchise desperately needs to make its way to the PC platform, but disappointment looms for that crown.
The NHL franchise has a long history of releasing on console, and this year the franchise will return to both current and last-generation Xbox and PlayStation platforms. However, there exists a community of virtual puck lovers that have long waited for the NHL series to land on PC.
Source: Electronic Arts
Unfortunately, NHL 23 will not be releasing on PC. I confirmed this in an interview with developers from Electronic Arts Vancouver shortly after an NHL 23 press briefing, with NHL 23 Producer, Clement Kwong, stating, “For NHL 23, PC just wasn’t on the radar. For future years, I’m afraid I don’t have anything to announce at this point.”
If other EA Sports franchises didn’t have a history of releasing on PC in recent years, perhaps this would be an easier pill to swallow. This will be the fifth consecutive year that Madden has released on PC, and the FIFA franchise has been releasing on PC for over a decade. As someone who primarily plays games on PC, and plays hundreds of hours of NHL each year, it would be a fantastic way to dig into the Franchise mode as a GM only. Navigating menus with a controller (in any game) isn’t great. I’d also love to see what kind of visuals the NHL series would be capable of on PC. It’s also just good business to meet your players on the platform they prefer, and there is no doubt that there are gamers who would prefer to play NHL 23 (and future iterations) on PC.
Maybe there’s hope for the future, though, as NHL 23 will be the first game to offer players a light version of cross-platform play, and it’s the first entry in the franchise’s history to have a female cover athlete in Sarah Nurse. It’s clear that EA Vancouver is taking steps, so let’s hope that NHL 23 is the last year the series isn’t on the PC platform.
