NHL 23 developers on Frostbite engine, crossplay matchmaking, and the state of gameplay – Interview

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NHL 23 is officially on the docket for this fall, and this will be the second installment of the franchise on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. Last year’s entry in the franchise was a stark contrast from previous games, thanks to a new gameplay engine and additions like customizable rating loadouts in EASHL and roster sharing. Players are likely wondering what this year’s installment has to offer. We spoke to two development leads of the NHL franchise, Clement Kwong and Michael Ingelhart, about NHL 23, and they let us know all changes that are skating up the ice for 2022.

One of the significant changes for the NHL franchise last year was a brand new gameplay engine, albeit one that was quite familiar to those who regularly play EA sports games. The EA NHL franchise migrated over from the Ignite engine — the one that had been the foundation for the older Xbox One/PS4 NHL games — to Frostbite, the system that is used by the FIFA and Madden franchises.

Related: Will NHL 23 be available for the PC?

This is Year 2 of the NHL franchise within the Frostbite engine, and NHL 23 producer Clement Kwong noted that the team has shifted its priority list a bit. Last year, Kwong said that between the change of generations and engines, the primary focus was on ensuring that the gameplay was good and running perfectly, all without losing any of the key features that were in the old generation of consoles.

For NHL 23, a large part of the focus from the development team was on expanding. This let the team showcase new features like crowd awareness and fine-tune the experience and presentation. NHL 23 will feature new Stanley Cup presentation sequences, snow from the ice piling up on the boards,