NHL 25 News
NHL 25’s New Contract Negotiations with AI NHL Players
NHL 25‘s new Conversation System allows game players to negotiate contracts and get creative in how they converse with artificial intelligence-driven NHL players.
Contract negotiations are core part of simulation sports games. Thus, simulation sports game players who enjoy roster building, scouting AI players, and inking deals will be happy to learn that EA Sports has made efforts to improve NHL 25’s Franchise Mode.
NHL 25 Contract Negotiations
Per and official EA Sports blog post, contract negotiations in NHL 25’s Franchise Mode have “undergone a significant overhaul, making the signing process more authentic.” The new contract negotiation system is oriented around two main values: the terms of the contract such as years, dollar value and additional value-added clauses; and the AI player’s perceived opinion of an NHL franchise.
Franchise managers can play with the salary amounts, and make various commitments to AI players such as promising first line playing time. Further, one of the neat features in NHL 25 contract negotiations is the ability to add various clauses into the contract — something that EA Sports FC has done for years. A no-trade clause can boost an AI player’s perceived value of the contract; likewise, a no-move clause will be more favorable for the AI player that managers are recruiting.
NHL 25 — The Conversation System
New to NHL 25 is the Conversation System that allow franchise managers to engage AI players in short-term and long-term goals. Player X-Factor development can benefit by achieving pre-planned, shared goals with AI players. These conversations with AI players and Franchise managers will help managers to motivate and develop their players throughout a season. In theory, it sounds excellent. In practice, it can become a cumbersome chore, as we have seen in the Madden NFL series. NHL will need to innovate on the feature to make it more engaging for it to click.
Continuing, the Conversation System runs at full throttle for contract negotiations. The System will allow Franchise managers to read the responses of AI players, and make attempts to collaborate with these AI athletes in order to meet their most important contractual goals. Factors such as competing offers and conversation timing also come into play. For example, inking a deal with an AI player will be inherently more difficult for managers if they are late to make an offer. Additionally, managers can extend offers to AI players with expiration dates by way of what EA Sports calls “tabling offers”— a risk proposition, but an unique wrinkle for the negotiation.
DSJ Opinion — What’s Missing
Unlike EA Sports FC, NHL 25’s negotiations do not feature animated cut-scenes. For example, there is no opportunity for managers to read player reactions to various offers made. Moreover, the negotiations may have a number of outcomes but are not as dynamic as, for example, a conversation with AI programs such as ChatGP and the like. I expect more advanced contract negotiations and discussions in the future; this, as more advanced AI technology becomes more widely adopted, and thus, more widely available to leverage for sports games. That said, game developers have been using AI for decades — so I expect this in-game technology to make significant advances in the coming years. In EA’s defense, EA has invested in AI for its gameplay technology. See EA FC’s HyperMotion, FC IQ, and NHL’s very own ICE-Q.
Most of the new contract negotiation features in NHL 25 are similar to, if not a step behind what is found in many of the leading sports games such as NBA 2K, MLB The Show, and EA Sports FC. But, NHL 25 is moving in the right direction.
NHL 25 is developed and published by Electronic Arts, and it is now available as of 04 October 2024 on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
