EA has announced EA Sports PGA Tour, a new next-gen golf game for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It is set to rekindle the company’s partnership with the PGA Tour license that dominated the golf game genre with Tiger Woods as the face of the franchise from 1998 through to 2013.
Tiger won’t be the figurehead of the new video game, however, with no mention of any golf star for the series at this time. Then again, a lot of the appeal of sports games is being able to create your own character and work through an extensive career mode. That’s exactly what EA Sports PGA Tour will offer with a full virtual career that will let you take on THE PLAYERS Championship, the FedExCup Playoffs and others, including many of the world’s best known golf courses, and featuring plenty of professional golfers.
The game will be built on the Frostbite game engine and will take advantage of what the next-gen consoles provide to offer “stunning fidelity, breathtaking immersive environments, and approachable, dynamic gameplay.”
More details of the game wiil be revealed in the coming weeks and a launch date will be announced in the coming months, indicating that this project is much further along than the recently announced revival of the EA College Football series.
Speaking of the revived partnership, PGA Tour’s Len Brown said, “We’ve partnered with EA SPORTS to bring immersive golf video game experiences to fans of all ages for years. We are thrilled to continue working with EA SPORTS on its golf franchise to authentically represent the PGA TOUR for the next generation. The newest game will give golf fans another way to experience their favorite sport, or to discover their passion for it.”
Update: It has been confirmed to us that this is not an exclusive PGA Tour license, meaning that both EA and 2K Games will be publishing competing golf games.
That leaves some big questions though, including: “Wait, what? Didn’t 2K Games have the PGA Tour license?” Well, they did! The series developed by HB Studios started off as The Golf Club, before picking up the unused PGA Tour license for The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour. That was followed last year by PGA Tour 2K21, and I think it’s safe to say that everyone everyone thought they would continue to hold the license. That was amplified when, just two weeks ago, 2K announced that Tiger Woods had signed a long-term exclusive deal with 2K.
We are asking both EA and 2K to establish whether the license is exclusive, but if both companies are able to develop games with the PGA Tour logo on the box, that’s sure to set up an almighty scrap for supremacy, especially when 2K dominates NBA and has an upcoming challenger for NFL (albeit in a more arcade form.
Source: press release
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Pretty much loved all the EA Tiger fronted games but Rory release was low on content and soulless I felt. I’m not really fussed about who fronts the game as long as the content amount is decent. I’ll be keeping an eye on this release.