
Through free updates, EA Canada eventually added many NHL 15 features that were missing at launch.

"We spent more time listening and working with them this year than ever before." EA is also answering direct questions from fans on the game's website, and doing so in a more forthright way than developers of big-budget franchises usually do. "First we looked to our biggest fans and asked them to be a part of our team," said EA.

The company took a lot of flak last year for refusing to answer specific questions about NHL 15's feature set until the day before launch. To its credit, EA is attempting to start off on the right foot with its fanbase this year, acknowledging 2014's missteps and laying out a full list of all NHL 16 modes along with its announcement blog post today. We've reached out to EA to ask if the NHL Legacy name - notably lacking the annual designation that EA's other sports titles carry - means that this will be the last NHL game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. FIFA 14 and FIFA 15, also developed at the EA Canada studio, each received a roundly criticized "Legacy Edition" on Wii that delivered the same game as the year before with no new features or modes. NHL Legacy "brings together the most popular modes and award-winning gameplay features from nine years of NHL hockey," according to the game's website.

That product, called NHL Legacy, will also be available in September.

EA Sports' NHL 16, launching in September, will bring back numerous features and gameplay modes that were missing from the series' disappointing Xbox One and PlayStation 4 debut, but previous-generation consoles will get little more than a reconditioned release of last year's game, with updated rosters and player uniforms.
