With NHL Playoffs in full effect, EA Sports took the time on Cinco de Mayo to announce NHL 15. NHL 15 will be released on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3. Although the focus is definitely on the new generation of consoles. EA Sports boasts that NHL 15 includes over 9,000 crowd models and over 4x’s the animations of previous iterations. Not to mention the 35,000 lines of new commentary by Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and TSN analyst Ray Ferraro. All of their commentary is based based on NHL 15’s Vision AI system.
Vision AI is an elevated level of player intelligence where players read and react to current and potential plays, scoring area recognition, pass anticipation, and enhanced team breakouts. If that isn’t enough to boil the ice on your favorite team’s rink, the new generation of consoles allows EA Sports to give each player on the ice real-world physics. Every secondary collision, net scramble, and player pileup will be fully calculated by a revision the critically-acclaimed NHL Collision Physics system.
If you want to personalize the entire experience, make sure to vote for your favorite player either via http://www.nhl.com/covervote or by posting on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag for your favorite player (listed below). And if you tweet on a Thursday, your vote is counted twice! Want to check out the general conversation? Then search for #NHL15CoverVote. Voting ends June 1st, and the winner is announced June 24th at 2014 NHL Awards inside of Wynn Las Vegas.
| Team | Player | Player Hashtag |
|---|---|---|
| Boston Bruins | Patrice Bergeron | #NHL15Bergeron |
| San Jose Sharks | Logan Couture | #NHL15Couture |
| Los Angeles Kings | Drew Doughty | #NHL15Doughty |
| Colorado Avalanche | Matt Duchene | #NHL15Duchene |
| Ottawa Senators | Erik Karlsson | #NHL15Karlsson |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | Phil Kessel | #NHL15Kessel |
| St. Louis Blues | T.J. Oshie | #NHL15Oshie |
| Montreal Canadiens | P.K. Subban | #NHL15Subban |
NHL 15 will debut September 2014* on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, and PS3. You can pre-order via EA.
Teaser trailer below features some of the announcer commentary, player animations and arenas.
*EA Sports hasn’t announced an official release date. However, since at least 2009, ‘NHL YY’ has been released in September of (YY – 1)
