The cheers, boos, and hat-tossing of the crowd are an integral part of the NHL; however, NHL 23 hopes to capitalize on something that's better left to the actual sport. In sports, the crowd's roar can inspire players to surpass their limits, encouraging them to make high-risk, high-reward choices that get the crowd to scream so loud the stadium shakes. From hat-tricks to overtime celebrations and playoff victories, the heartbeat of the crowd is extremely important to the NHL culture as the players, coaches, and general managers all put their best foot forward to stoke their team's fans. However, in the NHL series, there hasn't been a large focus on the crowd's potential impact on a game.
While the crowds haven't been ignored when it comes to the games, they hold no real reaction from those who play them. In fact, those who play the NHL series' competitive gameplay modes like HUT and World of CHEL usually have a majority of sound turned down to its lowest setting except for on-ice sound effects like hits against the boards. Only recently, with the addition of the Frostbite Engine, did the development team at EA Vancouver update the crowd models to make them more realistic. Such a sudden shift into putting meaning behind the crowds of NHL games may be ignored outright.
One of the biggest features NHL 23 brings to the player is the Crowd Atmosphere which will represent the proper moment-to-moment reactions that occur within actual hockey games, but it won't be as impactful as the developer's hope. The crowd will get louder when the home team is maintaining the offense, anticipation in the cheers of raucous fans as breakaways and odd-man rushes are happening, boos for the away team, and more. The objective of this new crowd atmosphere feature is to keep the player engaged in NHL's skillful action gameplay, perhaps making them interested to see what other reactions they can get from the crowd or to keep these digital fans constantly excited. However, while this feature is a neat inclusion to make each match feel more like a real hockey game, it likely won't keep fans playing to the next game.
NHL 23's Crowd Atmosphere Won't Affect Competitive Play
Adding a reactive crowd may be too little too late as far as the competitive scene is concerned, but there is the chance those dedicated to the single-player modes might be more enticed to keep playing. Modes like Be A Pro could gain the most out of this new NHL game improvement, the feeling of tension and excitement the crowd displays driving the player to make their career the best it can be. Unfortunately, that is the best outcome for this new feature as it will likely be forgotten shortly after its release. The attention crowd atmosphere has been given should have been equal to a side project to further an overhaul of their single-player modes rather than be a main addition to the upcoming title.
Looking at the title from an outside perspective, the crowd atmosphere additions could be overlooked because the title has cross-platform play for the first time in the series. The NHL caters to its dedicated fans on a near daily basis with new content, be it simple social media interactions or players participating in the communities of the teams they represent. However, NHL 23 will struggle to bring that same interaction or bond of community to the series with this single feature.