Posted in: Electronic Arts, Games, Video Games | Tagged: EA Sports, Electronic Arts, NHL 21

EA Sports Gives A Development Update For NHL 21

In the middle of all the releases and scheduling from EA Sports, the company decided to give an update this week to the future of NHL 21. The company released the update on their website, which we have for you below to check out. The shorthand version is that they will be releasing the game this year, but they will be skipping out on being part of the next-gen consoles. Unless they decide to do backward compatibility, the game will just be on PS4 and Xbox One, skipping out on the PS5 and Xbox Series X. The move shouldn't be all that surprising seeing as how the company did the exact same thing to NHL 14 when the current generation of consoles was on the way. The company has yet to reveal a release date for the game, only stating it was pushed to October 2020.

We wanted to give you an update around NHL 21, its release date, when you'll be able to get your first look and our plans for the next-gen consoles.

To answer the most commonly asked question first, NHL 21 will launch a little later this year, shifting from our usual September window to October. This year has been full of extraordinary circumstances and we've had to make major adjustments in developing the game from home. This transition has been very successful and we're happy to say that the game is on track and feature-complete against our original vision, we just need a few extra weeks to do the polish, fine tuning and bug fixing. We know some of you will be disappointed by this news, but our goal with NHL 21 is to deliver an experience that will be worth the wait.

With that said, we're excited to let you know that you'll be able to get your first look at NHL 21 in late August. The team is eager to showcase everything new this year and we'll provide more details as we inch closer to reveal.

Another thing we've seen questions around is next-gen consoles. For NHL 21, we made the decision to focus on adding innovation and new features rather than the resource-heavy task of porting the game to new console technology. You'll still be able to play NHL 21 on the next-gen consoles through forward compatibility but we are fully focused on launching NHL 21 on the Xbox One and PS4 and look forward to the opportunities the next-gen systems will bring in the future.

As a thank you for your continued support, we've placed some complementary HUT packs in the store and WOC bags in your inventory for you to open and enjoy. We are grateful for your dedication and can't wait for everyone to hit the ice.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!