NHL 21 Closed Technical Test postponed to raise social injustice awareness
Following the delay of hockey’s postseason, EA Sports decided to also delay its NHL 21 Closed Technical Test.
NHL 21’s Closed Technical Test was supposed to start today, August 28. For those who registered and were accepted, it would provide a test for two game modes: Online Versus and World of Chel.
However, in light of another police shooting of an unarmed black man, the sports world has once again united to raise awareness to social injustice. It started with the NBA whose players decided to protest the NBA playoffs. Then it spread to other leagues, including Major League Baseball and eventually the National Hockey League.
The NHL’s scheduled postseason games on Thursday and Friday were postponed with the decision to reschedule them beginning Saturday. Respecting the league’s decision and also recognizing the importance of the issue at hand, EA Sports has also postponed the start of the Closed Technical Test.
We will also be postponing the start of the Closed Technical Test and will share more info soon
— EA SPORTS NHL (@EASPORTSNHL) August 27, 2020
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This isn’t the first time we’ve seen sports video game developers stick together with their real-life sports counterparts to raise awareness for social injustice and systemic racism. Just a few months ago, EA Play Live 2020 was postponed to bring awareness to the Black Lives Matter movement.
According to EA’s road map, August 27 was supposed to see all new features for World of Chel. That, obviously, did not happen and we await word on when it will. In the meantime, gameplay for NHL 21 is scheduled to be shown in mi-September, followed by HUT in late September. The Be a Pro and Franchise mode features will be shared in October.
NHL 21 was officially revealed earlier this week. EA announced Alex Ovechkin as this year’s cover athlete and shared a brief trailer for the game although it didn’t really showcase any gameplay.
NHL 21 is scheduled to hit the ice on October 16, 2020. It will be released for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Although it will not be receiving a next-gen version, it will be playable on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 via forward-compatibility.