With NHL owners and players still entrenched in a lockout, Electronic Arts has issued a roster update to its NHL 13 vide game that relocates players to European league. The changes are a result of real NHL players playing overseas during the lockout.
"An online roster update was released today for NHL 13," EA explained. "The update adds a duplicate version of NHL players who are playing in the following European leagues to their current team: Czech Extraliga (ELH), SM-Liiga, Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), Elitserien (SEL), National League A (NLA). This means that a player like Claude Giroux will remain on the Philadelphia Flyers roster, but will also be available on the Eisbaren Berlin (DEL) roster for online play."
EA added that "Hockey is a global game and within NHL 13 there are five European leagues, 66 European teams and over 2100 players representing 26 countries across Europe. By adding NHL players who have joined those leagues to their respective team rosters, we are able to create an authentic experience for fans of those leagues and the NHL, worldwide. For fans of a specific NHL team, those players will still be available on their NHL rosters, which could make for some interesting matchups online."
EA has also released a manual guide to moving players to Europe for gamers who aren't connected online. You can view this guide here.
EA previously announced that worldwide sales of NHL 13 in its first week were up 9 percent globally over last year's previous franchise high.
"NHL 13 has incredible new gameplay innovation, and it's the most connected NHL title we've ever created," said Andrew Wilson, Executive Vice President of EA SPORTS. "We're proud of this year's game, and we're extremely happy to see our fans worldwide embracing it in record numbers."
Check out our review of the game here and watch the game's trailer below...
