EA's NHL 12 Sells 451K In First Week, Facebook Spinoff Announced

Electronic Arts announced that its recently-released NHL 12 has sold over 451,000 units at retail in its first week, setting a new record for first-week sales for the franchise. Compared to last year's NHL 11, Electronic Arts noted that first-week sales for the NHL franchise were up 19 percent year-over-year. The publisher also announced that in early October, it will debut a Facebook-based spinoff to the NHL franchise titled NHL Superstars, a free-to-play social game that lets players "build and manage their ultimate team of professional hockey players." NHL 12, which is available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, launched in Europe on September 9 and in North America on September 13, and allows players to play as hockey legends such as Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe. According to EA, other additions to this latest NHL title include improved AI and a reworked physics engine.