NHL 23 is out October 14th - The most connected virtual hockey experience to date - EA Sports NHL

NHL 23 brings an enhanced Frostbite experience, cross-play and much more in the most connected virtual hockey experience to date. The new game is set to release on October 14th with preorder perks allowing early access.

The yearly iteration of EA Sports NHL is closing in on us and the release date for NHL 23 has been set to October 14th. As usual, we’ll be getting the choice between a few different editions with some extra pre-order perks, which we’ll be taking a closer look at towards the end of this article. Once again, with NHL 23, the franchise really draws inspiration from some of the sport's most exciting and influential players. In recent years, we’ve seen an influx of exciting new talent into the NHL, breaking barriers of what we ever thought was possible on the ice. We’ve also seen the emergence of worldwide stars in women’s hockey and the momentum they’ve been able to generate for themselves has served the sport extremely well, but they’ve also paved the way for the younger generation looking up to them. This year, EA Sports NHL is adding more Women’s content than ever and including some of the greatest female players to ever take the ice in the HUT game mode, allowing you to make your dream team of the sport’s greatest players a reality. With this being said, the cover athletes acting as an inspiration for this year's game will be Trevor Zegras from the Anaheim Ducks and Sarah Nurse from the Canada Women’s National Team. If you missed it, check out our cover athlete reveal article here.

“I’m pumped up and excited to be on the cover and it’s a huge honor for me. It’s a game I've been enjoying for quite some time and I’m pumped to see that so many of you have tried my moves out there. See you on the ice!” - Trevor Zegras

“I’m so excited and honored to be the first ever female cover star on an NHL video game. Women’s hockey is definitely here to stay!” - Sarah Nurse

Leaning into what Frostbite has to offer

While last year was something of a transition year for the franchise, this year the development team should have really been able to lean into the full potential of what the Frostbite engine and the new generation consoles will be able to deliver, and from the snippets we’ve seen thus far, it’s looking promising. The visual aspects and the lighting is obvious, but the crowd atmosphere, dynamic momentum, emotion and overall immersion in the arenas is a thing that’ll be the next step with the new title.

Last chance puck movement

On top of the improvements and tweaks the team has been able to make to existing mechanics, some new things we’ll be seeing in NHL 23 is last chance puck movement and enhanced goaltender AI. While the latter might be rather self-explanatory, last chance puck movement is going to be an interesting one that might divide a lot of opinions. What it does is allowing your player to reach for the puck in a last chance effort to make a play on a loose puck. Whether it’s going to be a shot while falling down or a pass to your teammate, you can now go for these moves in a situation that might have previously been lost.

Enhanced AI all around

NHL 23 promises enhanced goaltender AI, but also really leans into the X-Factors that will now impact how the AI players play the game even more. For example, players with the One tee X-Factor now have a higher propensity to look for a shooting position and their teammates will actively try to find the passing lane for that rocket slapshot.

Cross-play implementation

What we’ve heard from the development team thus far, is that the connected experience has been their main goal for NHL 23, and we’re happy to report that they’ve been able to deliver on that front. While the community has been asking for cross-play be implemented to the NHL-series, we haven’t really seen or heard anything about it, until now. NHL 23 promises to bring full cross-play implementation to the Hockey Ultimate Team and World of Chel game modes, allowing PlayStation and Xbox users to play against each other for the first time in the series history. The one drawback is that cross-play won’t be available across console generations and it will not be available at launch, but is going to be included in an update in November. Cross-play promises to greatly improve the matchmaking experience and allow you to play with your friends regardless of the console commitment you’ve made - that’s a massive W in our books!

Pre-order versions of NHL 23 - double entitlement

NHL 23 features two versions of the game available for Pre-order starting today. Players will be able to opt for the standard version or the X-Factor Edition on any console. When opting which version to go for, keep in mind that while NHL 23 will include cross-play for consoles within the same generation, it does not feature cross-play between console generations. If you are planning on upgrading to a next generation console over the course of the NHL 23 life cycle, we can confirm that HUT progress will be transferable to some extent, meaning that the top 20 players and coach can be locked, whereas the rest of your collection will be converted into pack value towards your HUT team in the next gen version of NHL 23.

Standard Edition

- HUT X-Factor Women's choice pack
- 5 World of Chel X-Factor Zone ability unlocks
- Be a Pro X-Factor slot unlocks (2), XP boost and bonus trait points
- Signed Sarah Nurse World of Chel jersey

X-Factor Edition
NHL_23_X-Factor_Edition_Xbox_PlayStation_SportsGamerGG.jpg

- Double entitlement (Unlocks the game for both Gen 4 & Gen 5 consoles)
- 3-Days early access
- 46000 NHL Points
- HUT X-Factor Player choice pack
- HUT X-Factor Power-up starter pack
- HUT X-Factor Women's choice pack
- 5 World of Chel X-Factor Zone ability unlocks
- Be a Pro X-Factor slot unlocks (2), XP boost and bonus trait points
- Signed Sarah Nurse World of Chel jersey

Technical test and release date

There will be a technical test going live most likely around the start of September, but no date or duration has been confirmed at the time of writing. As it is a technical test, the community will be asked to report feedback to the development team and also all streaming and recording of the work in progress is prohibited. Signups for the technical test have closed by now.

NHL 23 will be available on October 14th, 2022 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. For more information visit https://www.ea.com/games/nhl/nhl-23.