Connected Franchise has been one of the most requested features in the series for years, but one of the biggest criticisms since players got their hands on NHL 27 is the absence of CPU-controlled teams, meaning smaller groups can’t run a complete 32-team league. Why was the mode launched without CPU-controlled teams, and is this something that could be added to NHL 27 after launch?

When we set out to build Connected Franchise, our vision was anchored in feedback we gathered from players early in the development cycle. Across every conversation one theme consistently rose to the top, human connection is the heartbeat of the mode. The richest, most memorable stories in a feature like this are always the ones created between friends, so we decided to prioritize the core social experience right out of the gate.

At the same time, we hear the feedback loud and clear regarding CPU-controlled teams for smaller groups trying to create their own experience. Our overarching goal is for Connected Franchise to be a staple of this series for many years to come, bringing those nostalgic moments that used to happen on the couch to a global scale. We’re actively gathering feedback and community wishlists through our portal. And as we’ve stated on many occasions already, our commitment is to continuously evolve and enrich this mode over time based on player feedback.

Connected Franchise also currently lacks features such as the entry draft, player progression, aging and retirement, while certain statistics don’t carry forward between seasons. How did the team decide where to draw the line for the mode’s first iteration, and which of these features are the biggest priorities going forward?

We understand there is a long wishlist of features players are asking for, and we fully anticipated this level of passion around Connected Franchise which is awesome to see. As with any development cycle, time constraints require feature priority and decision making.

For this first iteration, we focused heavily on building a brand-new UI system from scratch to ensure the mode was as solid and friction-free as possible. Within that framework, we prioritized core components that directly drive rich social interactions between managers, like full team-to-team trading and dynamic free-agent bidding to deliver an experience on day one that was solid and fun.

Having said that, we completely understand the importance of the franchise mechanics you mentioned. While you can currently play multiple seasons, we know that the deep stories friends want to write over time are fueled by things like entry drafts, seeing players age and retire, and tracking rich statistical histories from season to season.

Our goal which I will mention again is to build the future of this mode alongside the community, using their feedback to add the features that matter most and evolve Connected Franchise into the richest experience possible. So for those playing the game or have a passion for the mode visit our feedback portal as we would love to hear from all of you.

NHL 27‘s Cohesive Team AI and individual team playbooks are designed to make all 32 teams behave differently, but some early players and reviewers feel those differences become much less noticeable online, where familiar strategies such as cross-crease opportunities continue to dominate. Is that something the team is seeing in its own data, and how do you plan to make authentic team systems matter more in competitive play?

From a competitive online standpoint, when a game first launches, it’s completely natural for players to lean into familiar strategies. Frankly, on a 2-on-1, using the ice horizontally for a cross-crease pass is just fundamentally sound hockey. But hockey isn’t like football where you’re executing a rigidly scripted play, it’s a fluid, continuous sport where structure dictates opportunity.

Where these playbooks really come into play is in 5-on-5 zone attacks, defensive coverage, breakouts, and power play formations. Because every playbook is built on real-world positional data, the way teams move, rotate, and support the puck is completely bespoke. Some playbooks excel at low-board cycling, others focus on working the point to create net-front traffic, and some unlock unique set plays. When you layer in your specific lineup of players on top of those playbook systems, the tactical possibilities expand significantly.

There’s a ton under the hood that players are just beginning to scratch the surface of. As the community moves past day-one habits and starts experimenting with different playbooks, they’re going to discover nuances that give them a distinct tactical advantage. There is a world of tactical expression in NHL 27, and the more players explore and experiment, the more ways to win they’re going to find.

Goaltender animations and AI have received praise, but there are also players who feel goalies can become excessively difficult to beat in certain situations while familiar high-percentage scoring methods remain effective. How are you approaching goalie tuning and, more broadly, trying to increase the variety of viable ways players can score?

First off, it is great to hear that the new goaltender animations and the work we’ve done there are receiving praise. Goalies will always be a major topic of conversation in the NHL franchise. Goal-scoring is the distinct meta that drives the game, and since goalies are the last line of defense against that meta, they will always be under a passionate microscope when it comes to game balance.

This year, we focused heavily on making goalies better at anticipating situations and saving shots they can see. This doesn’t mean you can’t come in, find a seam, and fire a shot past a completely rested goalie, but we have improved their viability at making saves when they are fresh and can clearly see the puck. There’s been a journey with our goalies over the years where, at times, they felt too loose and too easy to beat in certain situations, and we know that’s simply not realistic. While you can certainly beat an NHL goalie with a clean shot, elite goalies are going to make that save the vast majority of the time when they have a clear line of sight.

Because of this, goalie fatigue plays a much bigger role this year. Wearing a netminder down is crucial, but a tired goalie doesn’t instantaneously become an automatic goal. Creating screens, shooting through heavy traffic, and forcing the goalie to move laterally across the entire crease will drastically increase your chances of lighting the lamp.

You also have to consider the matchup: who is shooting the puck and who is in net. You will see distinct variance there, especially when X-Factors come into play, adding an extra layer to that conflict resolution between shooter and goalie.

Ultimately, good hockey will be rewarded. Generating rebounds with players actively driving the net is highly effective, and our new playbooks bring more of those systemic opportunities to light. Focus on who you are shooting with, wearing the goalie down, and creating traffic for tips, but also don’t be surprised when you can just blow a clean shot by the goalie on a breakaway under the right circumstances. The goal here is balance and variety. A great hockey game offers multiple ways to score, and we have worked hard to ensure there is as much scoring variety as possible while always rewarding strong tactical play.

The revamped arenas, crowds, goal songs and overall presentation have been among the most consistently praised elements of NHL 27. At the same time, there has been criticism around repeated or occasionally contextually inaccurate commentary and the continued use of generic environments outside the NHL. Are either of those areas something the team intends to expand or improve through post-launch updates?

Commentary is a living feature, and our work on it certainly doesn’t stop at launch. We brought in a completely new broadcast team this year, and as we move forward, we are fully committed to updating and adding new conversational content to the commentary system. Our goal is to continually branch out what is offered, adding more situational depth to the stories and improving the contextual accuracy of the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Regarding environments, our primary focus for NHL 27 was nailing the atmosphere across the 32 NHL venues first. However, non-NHL rinks still benefit from our new foundational tech. You will absolutely see features like the dynamic crowd system and the orchestrator presentation system carry over to these arenas. As the franchise moves forward we will look at adding the components unique to the NHL venues currently across into all arenas.

Looking beyond immediate balancing and bug fixes, which parts of the feedback you’re receiving can realistically be addressed during NHL 27‘s post-launch support, and which changes are substantial enough that they would have to become longer-term goals for the series?

Based on the feedback coming in through our Feedback Portal and other community channels, we are constantly evaluating when and how to address things. It really comes down to balancing development bandwidth and we are always simultaneously working on live updates for the current game while laying the groundwork for the future.

As you mentioned, some changes simply take more time than others, so we evaluate everything on a case-by-case basis. The goal is always to do the right thing at the right time. If there is an avenue to address a piece of feedback or make a meaningful addition quickly, promptly, and at a high quality, we are going to do it. Over the course of NHL 26, we actually increased the frequency of changes and additions going into our game, and we want to carry that live-service momentum forward.

Can you break down NHL 27‘s target resolutions and frame rates across PS5, PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S? What specific enhancements does PS5 Pro receive over the standard PS5 version, and are there any differences in image quality, graphical settings or performance between Xbox Series X and Series S?

All of our platforms target 4K resolution, except for Series S which targets 1440p. Our gameplay renders at 60fps across all platforms. The PS5 Pro enhancement comes from a higher native resolution and higher frame rate during cinematics, leveraging Sony’s PSSR 2 technology, Compared to Series S, the Series X platform offers higher native and target resolutions, achieving higher visual fidelity.

The multiplayer for EA Sports FC 27 will feature The Grounds – a social space where players can meet up to engage in small-scale challenges, like 1v1s, between more standard regular matches. Players will also be able to find NPCs that allow them to improve their abilities on and off the pitch in The Grounds.

The transfer market in Manager Career has also seen some major revisions after going through a complete rebuild with an emphasis on more realistic player values and active club bidding. Players will have access to new negotiation tactics, like performance and buy-back clauses, along with options for dynamic OVRs that reflect player form, morale, and fitness.

Fans of the franchise’s Ultimate Team mode also have plenty to look forward to, such as a new Gallery where they can track their in-game achievements. Players will get to keep records of Player Items that have passed through their clubs, along with new progression paths to earn even more rewards. The core of the new progression paths revolves around the Gallery Sets system, which allows players to focus on specific themes while they fill out their galleries.

The Gallery itself will also be an in-game space where players can keep track of their club’s performance, with 3D objects accumulating over time and, in turn, giving players a new way to reflect on their club’s journey.

Other refinements to FUT include more player choice and planning tools for Evolutions thanks to the new Pathways system. This allows players to pick between multiple options. An example of this, provided in the game mode’s deep dive trailer, showcased how a player’s dribbling getting improved could lead to a new PlayStyle, while another player might get improved defensive ratings.

The career mode got its own deep dive trailer last month, showcasing how changes to the OVR ratings system will lead to more fluctuations between individual matches. Each athlete has new parameters that are calculated to make sure that their in-game versions are as close to real life as possible. The behaviours of teammates have also been changed, and EA Sports FC 27 now also allows players to create custom challenges for a new way to climb up the progression ladder.

For more details about EA Sports FC 27, check out our review of the PS5 version, where we gave it a score of 8 out of 10. We praised the long-overdue improvements that have been made to the career mode, as well as some of the incremental updates made to on-pitch gameplay. However, we found The Grounds to be quite lacking when it came to polish and amount of content.

Steam reportedly made up the lion’s share at 69.9 percent, followed by PlayStation at 19.9 percent and Xbox at 10.2 percent. It’s estimated to have earned $50 million in revenue, with console users accounting for 40.1 percent due to the higher price. A staggering majority of players are apparently from North America and Europe (90 percent), with Asia representing less than five percent.

Which is understandable given how much more well-known (and popular) Star Wars is in the West, though lackluster localization options probably didn’t help. And while 28 percent of Steam players had played XCOM 2, a healthy number also apparently played other Star Wars titles, including Jedi: Fallen Order (24 percent) and Star Wars: The Old Republic (32 percent).

Console players who played Firaxis’s turn-based strategy game are 32 percent, but the crossover with other Star Wars titles is apparently night and day. About 63 percent allegedly also played Fallen Order on PlayStation, while 85 percent checked it out on Xbox.

EA hasn’t officially confirmed sales numbers, but Bit Reactor’s future is up in the air after it was revealed that several employees were furloughed ahead of launch. Head here for more details.

Meaningful changes and additions are something we hope to see in new FC releases pretty much every year, but FC 27 actually delivers those changes. Unfortunately, the results are uneven- while some improvements actually do change things for the better, other flagship changes feel like they could have done with more time in the oven.

"Meaningful changes and additions are something we hope to see in new FC releases pretty much every year, but FC 27 actually delivers those changes."

Let’s start with the positive stuff, and not just because it tackles the area of the game that I personally pour most of my time into every year- career mode. EA Sports FC 27 makes a number of changes to the manager career experience, and for the most part, unlike most years, those changes actually do end up being as meaningful as they’re made out to be. Chief among them is the overhauled transfer system, which addresses some of the series’ longest running career mode issues in clever ways.

Gone are the stilted and awkward cutscenes that would see your manager negotiating transfer deals and contracts with managers and players, with a new and overhauled system instead slotting in. Each transfer negotiation is now a multi stage affair, requiring you to scout out players, enquire about their availability, and engage in negotiations with both club and player before finalizing deals. Each step feels much more deliberate now, with negotiations taking longer and requiring more thought and actual engagement with the mechanics.

More granular negotiation options are now on offer, allowing you to offer deals structured in a variety of ways to navigate your transfer budget, while clubs and players also have more realistic financial expectations going into negotiations, effected more believably in turn by players’ form. Clubs can also take their time to mull over offers submitted by you, while you also have other tools to resort to, such as publicly declaring interest in a player in order to pressure reluctant clubs into negotiations.

Though things are still not quite on the same level as something like the Football Manager series where transfers are concerned, the new system definitely does make for more believable and engaging experience, often even getting you embroiled in legitimate, long drawn-out transfer sagas. There’s also new cutscenes sprinkled in, as well as an entirely new hub with a slick new interface, all coming together to finally deliver the long overdue overhaul to the transfer system that we’ve been hoping to see in career mode for years.

"More granular negotiation options are now on offer, allowing you to offer deals structured in a variety of ways to navigate your transfer budget"

Career mode makes several other solid improvements as well. For instance, there’s the new dynamic overall system, which sees players’ overall ratings fluctuating through the season based on their form, fitness, how they are training, and other factors. Morale is one of those factors as well, of course, which means effectively juggling your squad and ensuring that your best players are getting enough minutes becomes much more crucial than it has been in previous years’ career modes.

Rival clubs also behave more realistically in terms of how they go about building their squads, which means AI transfers in later seasons in long-running career mode saves are less outlandish than they tend to be in most entries. The repetitive press and media interaction cutscenes have also been replaced, allowing for things to keep moving at a better pace. With a couple of significant overhauls and a handful of smaller improvements coming together, FC 27’s career mode feels fresher and more enjoyable than it has in years.

When it comes to the actual on pitch gameplay, the improvements are much more granular- albeit still worthy of praise. EA Sports FC 27 allows players to swap between competitive and authentic gameplay styles, with the former being closer to the arcadey style that FIFA and FC entries have usually been known for, and authentic gameplay going instead for slower, more deliberate, simulation focused gameplay. There is, of course, plenty of fun to be had either way, especially with the tried and true arcadey style of the series, though personally I found myself greatly enjoying the authentic style.

Much greater control is given to you, making everything from tacking and closing down to making runs and sweeping with the goalkeeper much less automated than you may have been expected to in past years. FC 27’s on pitch gameplay feels much slower, more skill oriented, and much more tactical this way, and though it can certainly take some getting used to, I’ve found it to be quite enjoyable so far. Set pieces have also seen significant tweaks, allowing you to set up corners and free kicks with much greater precision- though that also means opposing players are also much more adept at scoring with free kicks or driving in deadly crosses from corners now.

"Conceptually, The Grounds is a great idea, though unfortunately, it feels like it could have done with more fleshing out."

Unfortunately, not all of EA Sports FC 27’s big swings are success stories. In fact, the game’s biggest new addition, the social hub known as The Grounds, is perhaps where it is most disappointing. Similar (at least in a very superficial sense) to NBA 2K’s The City, FC 27’s The Grounds mode allows players to navigate a small open world town that serves as both a social hub and a hub for a variety of football related activities.

These range from 5v5 Rush games and 3v3 matches to 1v1 and 2v2 affairs and even minigames like balloon ball (which tasks you with, you guessed it, bursting balloons with a football). Outside of that, there are stores to shop at, targets to shoot down all over the map, football facts and tidbits to find in the environment, and more.

Conceptually, The Grounds is a great idea, though unfortunately, it feels like it could have done with more fleshing out. For starters, there isn’t nearly enough content in here to keep players meaningfully engaged for a long stretch of time. Then there’s the fact that the movement feels stiff at times, while the town itself can also feel a little dull.

Though there’s some nice environmental variety across its three zones (inspired by Britain, Argentina, and France), overall, it feels like a static location with not much depth and interactivity, and not nearly enough content to keep you engaged. Even worse are the supremely awkwardly voiced cutscenes that se real world footballers like Kylian Mbappe and Paulo Dybala speaking with your avatar character to deliver some of the most painfully milquetoast athletic advice the human brain could imagine. While I don’t doubt that The Grounds is an idea that can lead to a legitimately great mode down the line – and hopefully will – right now it feels half baked and shallow.

Overall, EA Sports FC 27 is definitely somewhat uneven with some of its bigger additions, but in other, rather critical areas, it does manage to make several meaningful improvements. Career mode in particular sees some long overdue improvements with transfers in particular, while the on pitch gameplay is also suitably addictive and enjoyable in the state that the game has launched. The Grounds could definitely do with significant post launch upgrades, from new content to crucial layers of gameplay polish, but by and large, FC 27 feels like a much needed change up for EA’s stagnating football series.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 5.

Of course, our first thoughts were of all of you waiting to learn more about the game, and whether it’s going to be worth diving in from day one. We figured knowing about some of the gameplay changes that stood out to us is going to help with that decision one way or another, so let’s get right to it!

1. Keep Control With Off-Balance Dribbling

While FC 26 placed a welcome emphasis on shielding and responsive play when dribbling, things could get a tad dicey when physical contact sent us into stumbling animations that soon became a sure-fire way to lose possession.

Well, that’s changing now with players who are sufficiently specced into Balance, Agility, and Dribbling able to enter an off-balance state in which a bump, collision, or shoulder charge lets them retain directional control and take an additional dribble touch even as they stumble. That immediately makes physical contact an opportunity to compete for control of the ball instead of a punishment for not avoiding contact altogether.

2. Teammate Contain

We liked what this one was meant to do in FC 26, the idea being that a defender always has backup when trying to block an opponent’s effort to slip past them and score; prevention being better than a cure and all that. However, that second defender could often get too close and even interfere with our own plans from time to time, or in the case of our own defenders, often create a scoring opportunity in the effort.

That’s different now, as FC 27 makes that second defender hang back, waiting for you to take control and get to pinning attackers on your own, a change that’s immediately more palatable than the previous solution.

3. Changes To Shoulder Challenging

FC 26 made spamming your shoulder challenges a little too viable for our tastes, a sentiment that seemingly echoed across the board as they were changed to reduce challenges coming from directly behind your opponent.

FC 27 has taken that a step further to make shoulder challenges work best when you’re side-by-side with your opponent, while merely spamming it now slows down your defender as they stick out an arm for balance. That’s a nice way to ensure players use the game’s mechanics with intent rather than simply wishing for things to click on their own.

4. Restrictions To Team Press

The previous game had already taken things down a notch as far as Team Press was concerned, reducing marking and pressure in the defensive half. But the AI could still be quite troublesome if you were in possession, getting even more aggressive higher up the field.

In FC 27, Team Press isn’t in effect when the ball’s in your defensive third, and it does still function as you go further up the pitch, but with changes. Defenders aren’t going to be as aggressive as midfielders and forwards, and the defense becomes more vulnerable to a ball behind the line the more defenders step up to the ball. That could make quite the difference in practice, requiring more manual switching and defensive positioning.

5. More Conservative Lower Defence Positions

Defenders could keep pushing too high up the pitch in FC 26, a facet of the experience that needed a patch to low-depth positioning.

That’s been taken a bit further this year, with defenders retreating sooner and trying to minimize available space behind the line. That immediately changes how low blocks play out in a match, and it could mean more meaningful defensive lines that help sell the simulation much better than what was on offer before.

6. Separating Running Speed from AcceleRATE

The three core categories in the AcceleRATE system brought distinct acceleration types in FC 26 alongside the Acceleration and Sprint Speed ratings, but that’s changed this year to reduce its influence on running performance.

That automatically makes Explosive, Controlled, and Lengthy feel less disparate, while raw pace attribute ratings now better influence running speeds for a player on the pitch. It makes AcceleRATE feel like its own movement classification system without letting it interfere with how fast you perform in a match.

7. Changed Lengthy Requirements For Female Players

The requirement for a female player to fit into the Lengthy category, provided she meets Strength, Acceleration, and Agility requirements, was at 165cm/5’5″ in FC 26 but is now increased to 172cm/5’8″ this year.

That’s immediately going to change which female athletes on your roster can fit into the Lengthy category, which in turn influences your team compositions based on the kind of strategies you’re adopting.

8. Riskier Player Lock Implementation

Switching away from whoever was controlling the ball last year would let the CPU maintain possession while you lined up your off-ball runner. That’s changed now, and the CPU carrier doesn’t automatically evade defenders and is going to continue in the direction you left them going. Passing error margins on a CPU-controlled ball carrier also get an increase, making it risky to switch in tight situations.

That automatically makes Player Lock feel more like a deliberate choice that you use sparingly to set up a good offense instead of a mechanic that you could use to let the CPU do the heavy lifting whenever you wanted it to.

9. Deliberately Heavier Player Movement

The movement overhaul that FC 26 brought to the table was definitely welcome, bringing a more agile roster of players who could turn faster and were generally more responsive, while Authentic Gameplay slowed that down in relation to what you could expect from Competitive.

Well, version 2.0 now brings a more physical weight to touches, turns, and sprints, especially when you’re under pressure, which can definitely help make things feel very real on the pitch. That it happens whether you’re on or off the ball is a really nice touch in our opinion, as it can make the experience feel consistent and authentic when you experience it in action.

10. More Authentic Weather Effects

The rain, snow, and wind from last year’s title were great additions to give us a feeling of being in the thick of the action while bringing meaningful twists to the gameplay, but they’re more potent this year around.

The weather isn’t just influencing the atmosphere in the stadium, but is going to have a direct impact on the flow of a match as players struggle to retain their footing after sharp turns in wet or snowy conditions. It’s a great way to expand on the new system and is definitely a step in the right direction as far as Authentic Gameplay is concerned.

11. More Variety In Physical Interactions

While there was a focus on making physical interactions more reliable with the intention of enabling better shielding and protecting possession in the previous game, FC 27 is changing things up by making physical interactions feel stronger and more varied.

Expect frequent stumbles if you come into contact with other players too often, as the broader physical collision system makes its presence felt right off the bat with this one.

12. A More Aggressive CPU

Remember how tackle accuracy and physical play felt quite realistic last year? That’s now been improved with CPU players committing more fouls as they try to get the ball away from you, and it immediately creates the scope for more realistic physical confrontations in a match.

That’s not to mention the positive effect it has on free kicks and set pieces that occur within games, with the added benefit of making CPU aggression feel like a more influential factor in Career Mode.

13. Expansions To Authentic Gameplay Customization

We were quite pleased with the addition of controls for margins of error on headed shots, headed passes, interceptions, and ball-deflections last year, and that’s now been expanded from FC 26’s five new gameplay sliders from last year to twenty-five new ones, alongside ten CPU sliders that are also brand new in FC 27.

The latter includes separate controls for CPU Opponents and Teammates, so you get to tune the behaviour of both playing sides in Player Career and other compatible modes.

14. Stronger Tactical Identities For CPU Teams

Last year brought tighter midfield positioning and better defensive organizing from CPU-controlled teams, and this year is building on that with more distinct playing styles, improved decision-making, and a wider gamut of tactical approaches for your opponents.

EA is also tuning areas such as CPU 1v1 finishing and defensive responses, which should further distinguish opponent behaviour. You’re going to have to work for your wins, and that’s exactly how it should be!

15. More Distinction between Difficulty Levels

The Professional, World Class, and Legendary difficulties from last year are getting a bit of tweaking to make them feel more distinct.

That’s been recalibrated this year to make for clearer jumps between the three categories and different slider thresholds on parameters like Sliding Tackle Frequency and the like to allow more dynamic tactical behavior from AI opponents for when you’re playing solo. It could help change how they behave to present a more tangible difference between them

And that’s it for this one. FC 27 is certainly shaping up to be a fun addition to the long and prestigious line-up that the franchise now enjoys. You can bet you’re going to be seeing us on the pitch once you join in on the action.

We’ve been quite intrigued by The Grounds after the game showcased the new mode a while ago, and it now has another trailer to give some oomph to that in-depth look. It’s unique, framed as a sort of interview with the people you’re likely to meet, each bringing a bit of the motivation behind their presence. It’s a great way to showcase how clubs can sometimes leave stadiums with the people who carry them in their hearts.

There’s something on offer no matter what you want to do, from street matches, forming clubs with friends, meeting and learning from popular names and famous mentors, and so much more. There’s also the potential for self-expression with a range of options at your disposal. All in all, it’s hard to think of reasons not to try this one out.

Of course, that’s good news for us all, as this gives us a bunch of activities and a ton of content to engage with when we’re not giving it everything we’ve got on the pitch. The trailer’s below if you want to look at what engaging with The Grounds will bring to the table.

EA has just announced the game is now available for pre-loading so you can dive in the minute it’s available in your region. As for when that’s going to happen, you can mark September 17th at 4 PM PDT if you’re an Ultimate Plus or Ultimate Edition owner, or an EA Pro member. If you’re on EA Play, a 10-hour early access trial begins five hours after the release at 9 PM PDT on the 17th.

Standard Edition owners have a little longer to wait, as it opens up at 4 PM PDT on September 24. There’s a long list of region-specific launch windows if you’re looking for other time zones, and you might be interested in looking at PC-specific improvements if you’re diving in on the platform.

We’ve been keeping a sharp eye on this one and are pretty excited to dive into all the new stuff it’s bringing to the table this time around. Things are looking good for the football sim this year, and we’re rooting for its success.

"Within minutes of digging in, I felt like a stranger to the skates."

Now, for 27, the left-trigger pivot is no-longer the reliable skating manoeuvre my muscle memory remembered. Overusing it left me vulnerable to poke checks. It took a few periods before I acknowledged its speed penalty and started to use it sparingly for subtle re-positioning or to open passing lanes, letting the AI skaters move rather than prematurely forcing the play.

This change gave me a useful introduction to NHL 27’s wider ambitions, with EA Sports skewing this year’s iteration toward making the on-ice action purposeful and reactive. See, more deliberate skating is just the tip of the iceberg – most significant this year is all 32 NHL teams now carrying individual playbooks informed by real-world NHL EDGE data. The Leafs, for instance, balance forechecking with speed through the neutral zone, while Colorado Avalanche prefers carrying the puck over the blue line. Other teams apply pressure by dumping, some lean on cycling to tire out defences, and others demand high-intensity across all zones.

More importantly, however, is that AI players are supposed to understand their team’s favoured strategies, adjusting their positioning, responsiveness, and support as matches evolve – the so-called ‘Cohesive AI’ which EA touts in its marketing.

After several games, it seems plausible that there’s something genuinely compelling here. NHL 27’s playbooks can tangibly affect the shape and rhythm of a game in ways that earlier entries rarely managed. The differences are there, and I can feel them on ice; what I’m less certain of is just how significant those differences really are. Have these playbooks fundamentally changed the way NHL plays, or have they simply given greater definition to systems that have underpinned the series for years?

The easiest way to understand NHL 27’s new playbooks is, for me, to not think of them as a set of tactics and more a demonstration of a team’s personality. Yes, they may specify the optimum formation for setting neutral zone traps or for which side of the rink skaters should stack during breakouts, but they also dictate their aggression, their willingness to take risks, or whether to hold cautiously. Now, each team has identifiable preferences covering things like forechecking, pinching, support, and structure across offensive lines and defensive pairings.

"The easiest way to understand NHL 27’s new playbooks is, for me, to not think of them as a set of tactics and more a demonstration of a team’s personality."

Assessing Colorado’s carry-focused approach, when breaking out of my defensive zone I noticed space opening up on centre ice. Then, moving through the middle of the rink revealed wide players who had found room to carry the puck into the offensive zone. The Edmonton Oilers, meanwhile, prefer dumping to carrying and shooting over cycling, so when I fired the puck around the boards for an AI teammate to chase, a supporting defenseman immediately pinched the blue line to occupy the passing lane before an opposing skater could close. Both the Avalanche and the Oilers, then, bring contrasting approaches to entry, but the tactical effectiveness hinges on their personalities and behaviour too; their patience, urgency, or a combination of both.

And the more I experimented playing with different teams, the more I realised that my own playstyle suited a particular team’s playbook over another. A match with the Montreal Canadians, for example, felt the most natural fit for me and the way I tend to play. They’re a carry-dump-agnostic team favouring low intensity cycling, and versus the LA Kings’ neutral zone control we fought an intense battle of repellent strategies. I played to Montreal’s strengths, cycled the puck, shot from the blue line, and lit the lamp with satisfaction knowing that I’d scored by playing the kind of hockey the team itself seems to encourage.

Of course, a team’s playbook means nothing if the players themselves didn’t follow its instructions. Thankfully, NHL 27’s AI is mostly convincing, with teammates shifting in-line with momentum, supporting breakouts, chasing dumped pucks, and launching desperation moves if caught on the wrong side of an odd-man rush. It creates the impression of a team that is thinking on their skates rather than following pre-prescribed routes.

This was particularly noticeable when I began paying attention to what was happening away from the puck. Driving down the wing of the offensive zone, the Utah Mammoth’s opposing winger would drive to the net, presenting an opportunity for a cross-crease pass and easy tap-in. And the Mammoth, as it happens, were another team that suited me, with them able to mix puck cycling and sniping with aggressive forechecking and recovery.

"Of course, a team’s playbook means nothing if the players themselves didn’t follow its instructions."

These observations carry over onto the opposing team and their defensive prowess, too. On higher difficulties especially, passing lanes were slammed shut as swiftly as they opened, meaning I had to commit to the pass immediately. In my Mammoth versus Dallas Stars game, with the Texan team often compacting around the slot, I had to find ways to work the offensive zone to open gaps to shoot. By the final buzzer, though, I’d achieved three wildly divergent goals, plus an empty-netter.

Not every experiment went as smoothly. Taking the New Jersey Devils into a game against the New York Islanders produced one of the most infuriating matches of my playthrough. And, intriguingly, I’m not entirely sure why. I committed to the Devils’ preference of carrying the puck into the zone, peppered Ilya Sorokin with 40 shots, but somehow couldn’t tire the Islanders netminder enough to find a breakthrough, all despite goalie fatigue being a consequential result of consistent pressure in this year’s edition. Their defence repeatedly collapsed around my scoring opportunities too, while the Devils’ supporting players didn’t seem as eager to support the attack as Hurricanes or Lightning players would. I lost, wondering if I was playing against a team whose strengths outmatched the Devils, or if I was failing to exploit the playbook properly.

Either way, it was a sobering reminder that NHL 27 doesn’t necessarily reward imposing your preferred style on every team. Sometimes, the biggest differentiator was me, the fallible human holding the controller.

Away from the immediate action, NHL 27 takes a steady step toward livening its presentation quality – a process started a few editions back. All 32 arenas have been rebuilt, complete with authentic goal songs, lighting, jumbotrons, and mascots, and the atmosphere is admittedly electric. The new commentary pairing of John Buccigross and Darren Pang slot neatly into the broadcast, but there’s a nagging feeling that each match’s atmosphere, away from the ice, isn’t necessarily distinct beneath the team-specific colour schemes and music. Some of the crowd character models remain distractingly rough, too. There’s a confidence in NHL 27’s broadcast package which makes it feel like a televised hockey game, but again I’m left wondering how significant these differences are.

"There’s a confidence in NHL 27’s broadcast package which makes it feel like a televised hockey game"

And this is where I begin to wonder if the game is worth buying, as elsewhere, its carbon copied modes are stark. World of Chel is unchanged, again, while Franchise Mode is essentially the same outside of playbook integration. HUT similarly integrates playbooks alongside real-world coaches, while Be a Pro partially revamps its storyline, but by-and-large it’s the same experience as the series’ previous entries. So, yes, while NHL 27 has invested in making matches themselves feel different, it’s done comparatively little in making the broader experience feel new. It’s a blight on annual sports titles, sure, but it feels especially pronounced here. If you haven’t taken to the virtual ice in a while, then full price could be worth it. But, if you already own NHL 26, 25, or even 24, team-specific playbooks and refined presentation might not be enough to incentivise opening your wallet again.

Given that, it’s fair to say NHL 27 leaves me feeling conflicted. On the ice, there’s an intelligence here that I genuinely appreciate. Its playbooks give teams more discernible identities, with AI mostly making those identities feel tangible. Adapting my approach to a team’s personality brought a surprising affinity where it hadn’t been before. I mean, no shade intended, but I appreciate the Montreal Canadians more than I did. Skating into a match for the first time, I really did feel like a stranger to the skates – and that piqued my interest.

But once the novelty wears off, NHL 27 struggles to justify its place as another annual purchase. Too much of the wider package remains overly familiar, leaving improvements that feel smarter rather than bigger or better. If you’re returning after a few years away, there’s plenty here to enjoy. For everyone else, though, NHL 27 may be a demonstration of where the series could go next – although I feel like we’ve said this before.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 5.

According to the report, PIF’s leadership has been considering the merger to make sure that the two companies can coordinate with each other in better ways to make sure that their assets are properly capitalized on. According to anonymous sources, however, no decision has been finalized yet, and the PIF is likely still waiting for its acquisition of Savvy Games – valued at $6 billion – to be completed first.

Along with having a major impact on the gaming industry as a whole, this potential merger is also noted as bringing about big changes in the general investment strategies of the PIF, since games could be developed and released under a single banner. However, it is also worth noting that such a merger would attract the attention of just about every regulatory body from across the world to ensure that regional antitrust laws aren’t being breached.

With EA’s recent decisions having led to the company canceling many of its mobile projects, the potential merger also starts making more sense, since the PIF would own a separate team to handle that aspect of the business while EA continues its work on PC and console games. The acquisitions of EA and Savvy Games are noted as being part of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s plans to diversify the country’s economy through a plan dubbed Vision 2030.

Last month, EA CEO Andrew Wilson commented on the company’s acquisition and the subsequent removal of its shares from various exchanges, stating that there are plans to “invest boldly” to ensure growth.

“This moment recognizes the extraordinary people whose creativity, ambition, and passion have made EA one of the world’s leading interactive entertainment companies. We’re entering this next chapter from a position of strength with partners who share our vision and ambition. Together, we’ll invest boldly, accelerate innovation, and build the next generation of games and experiences for the hundreds of millions of players and fans who inspire us every day.”

The deal to acquire EA has been valued at around $55 billion and was originally announced all the way back in September 2025. Following procedures that included seeking approval from regulatory bodies as well as EA’s shareholders over the last year, the company proceeded to pay out the shareholders to go completely private. In the process, EA has also amassed quite a bit of debt as part of its leveraged buyout deal.

PIF now owns 93.4 percent of EA, with Silver Lake taking on 5.5 percent ownership, and Affinity Partners ending up with 1.1 percent. Silver Lake CEO Egon Durban had commented on the potential for AI-based investments following the acquisition.

It’s probably a great time to drop a soundtrack for the game on Spotify, which is precisely what EA has done. We’ve got quite a selection this time around, with 120 tracks from 36 countries around the world. To us, that means there’s something for everyone to like, and an opportunity to check out music we’d otherwise have missed.

We’ve been tuning in, and we can tell you we’ve made quite a few additions to our library. With artists like Barry Can’t Swim, Temper City, Little Simz, The Strokes, Interpol, and more, there’s a beat to get your foot tapping, and it’s quite easy to find it fast with this one.

The soundtrack is the latest piece of the game to be shown off, with a gameplay deep dive and a look at its PC improvements also being in the news recently. We put together a few things you should know if you’re thinking about diving in. Here’s to hoping its new additions will help it take the franchise forward in meaningful ways.