The team at EA Canada has been hard at work on EA Sports’ latest hockey game, NHL 18, and development appears to be coming along, with the introduction of a new three-on-three mode and core improvements to the general gameplay to make it feel better.
That said, some fans have been wondering if the game has any chance when it comes to releasing on the Nintendo Switch. After all, EA Sports is currently working on a special version of EA Sports FIFA to come to the system later this year, even though the company’s other big sports juggernaut, Madden NFL 18, isn’t.
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Not to be the bearer of bad news, but the release of the hockey sim on Nintendo’s platform isn’t looking likely right now. Speaking with DualShockers, producer Clement Kwong noted that, at the moment, the platform just isn’t in the cards. “While we always continue to assess opportunities, so it’s not to say that’s a hard no, it’s not on our radar at this time.” However, if EA Sports FIFA is a success for the platform – which it very well could be – there’s always the opportunity for the team to revisit it in the future, like, for example, with next year’s likely-to-release NHL 19.
That isn’t to say that the Nintendo Switch will be without sports action this year. Alongside EA Sports FIFA, 2K Sports has a couple of games in the works for it, including NBA 2K18 and WWE 2K18. For that matter, there’s also the possibility that Nintendo could introduce a Mario-oriented sports title for the system down the road, seeing how it leans so much on franchises like Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. Nothing’s confirmed yet, but you never know.
For now, EA Sports is leaning all its hopes on EA Sports FIFA, and while it’s different from the forthcoming FIFA 18, it looks to be an effective game of soccer nevertheless. And NHL 18 should be a peak performer for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 when it releases on September 15th, based upon what we’ve seen from the open beta of the game thus far.
