EA has stood by its relationship to Tiger Woods, even after his multiple extra-marital dalliances and his win-less 2010 performance. That said, the appearance of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2012 without the titular golfer featured prominently on the cover raised some eyebrows. However, EA Sports president Peter Moore has stated that they aren’t distancing themselves from Woods.
You might think the name of the game was “Masters.”
“We like everybody else that’s involved with Tiger and the game of golf in general, the Augusta club, are all anticipating a great year for golf this year and Tiger being very important in that,” said Moore. “Obviously it was a difficult year last year, but you saw towards the end of the season Tiger starting to get back to his old ways. We all as both a sports industry and sports fans are hopeful he comes back in full force in 2011.”
“He is on the PS3 version of the game [Collector’s Edition]. Our focus this year for this particular release is the Masters itself. You can see the iconic flag as part of the box art,” continued Moore. “If the insinuation is it’s a reflection of EA Sports backing away from its relationship that goes back literally 13 years with Tiger, that’s not the case whatsoever. This is obviously a very important day in our history and an important day in the world of golf videogames, and focusing on the Masters is the right thing to do.”
“But Tiger is right there on the PS3 version of the game with Move support, which was very good for us and Sony last year. We’ll continue that,” he added. “This is something that’s very special, very different. You shouldn’t read anything into the fact that Tiger’s not featured on the box art of that particular edition.”
Despite sales being down for the version of the game that most recently released, Moore is optimistic for the Masters led PGA Tour game. “We’re obviously very optimistic that because this is so new and something the golf videogame community has been literally begging for for close to a decade, it will drive considerable sales,” Moore said. “Our projections are to do very well.”
Source: Eurogamer
