I think very little has to do with it being a monopoly. It's simply not a franchise that sells well enough to garner much more attention than a roster update and a few other tweaks each year. Across both platforms it sold just over 1 million units in the past year. Even if they made major changes it likely wouldn't increase sales even up to 1.5 mil...which is likely a high water mark for the entire series.
When you have Fifa selling 15+ million a year and even lackluster Madden games selling 7+ million units, a hockey game that is likely to sell less than 2 million units no matter how good it is just isn't going to get any attention. It makes better sense for them to put little effort into the game on a yearly basis and count on the 1 million units that will be sold. Putting the extra money and work into the game likely isn't going to get them the ROI that makes it competitive with other options looking for that investment money.
|