Your Thoughts on Tiger-less EA Sports Games

[Spyder]

I'll pass on this, and not because of Tiger or anything but becasue of EA. YOu spend $60 on the game but you still need to spend more $ in game to download "certain" courses? My $60 isnt enough?

That always sucks, but I guess I have to understand why they do it. It's a winning formula for them and the DLC content rakes in a ton of cash. Business-wise, it's a money making and winning decision. For the consumer, you feel slighted because you start playing 'career mode' and realize you need to buy courses at $4.99 each within 24 hours of paying $60.00 just to play completely through it. For a golf game, I would opt to include all of that content - but they're the billion dollar developer and I'm sure they know better. I always thought paid content would work better in FPS (first-person shoooters) and games like Call of Duty.

[RonTheSavage]

That always sucks, but I guess I have to understand why they do it. It's a winning formula for them and the DLC content rakes in a ton of cash. Business-wise, it's a money making and winning decision. For the consumer, you feel slighted because you start playing 'career mode' and realize you need to buy courses at $4.99 each within 24 hours of paying $60.00 just to play completely through it. For a golf game, I would opt to include all of that content - but they're the billion dollar developer and I'm sure they know better. I always thought paid content would work better in FPS (first-person shoooters) and games like Call of Duty.

Yeah I cant blame a company for making money, and if the extra dough is worth the backlash then go for it. You could always chose to play on another course that came with the game instead of buying the correct course but that gets old after awhile. Who wants to play the Players Championship anywhere else besides Sawgrass?

[tefunk]

I could care less if Tiger is on the cover or even in the game... I always create myself and play as myself. The courses in the game is what makes or breaks it for me.

[Fourputt]

Does someone know why Links 2003 was discontinued? It was a great Golf game.

Microsoft off loaded their PC game division and went purely to the Xbox.  Links was just one of the casualties of that decision, and since it wasn't up to what was considered "modern" graphics and would require a complete overhaul to make it salable, apparently no one wanted to buy the rights, so it just died.  The community kept with the game, creating courses and golfer animations, and such are still available for it.  The game itself was modified for more realistic greens and game play.  I was part of the testing team that worked on that.  We spent a lot of time and had a lot of fun testing new mods by playing together online.  It has also now been patched to work with Windows 7.

[turtleback]

I haven't seen a single version of the Tiger Woods franchise that I thought was worth the money.  I still play Links 2003 (now well modded by the user community) when I need a golf fix (If time allows, I may play a round or two at Pinehurst with the big guys this week).  With more than 1000 courses available, and with a better playing simulation of golf, it's always been my preferred game.  As EA went farther and farther afield from the actual game of golf, I was less and less interested.  Now it appears they have truly gone off the deep end.

Sounds like something the guy from Taylormade might want to give some thought to.

[bubble]

dont care.

I discovered golf on tiger woods on psone and played several years of the following releases.

this made me think I could maybe play real golf. so I did and stoped video games

[newtogolf]

Kids and 18-25 are the main demographic for most games and game systems.  I'm pretty sure PGA Tour trends outside those demographics more than most games but Tiger is not as relevant for the younger kids and 18-25 as he once was.  I would guess EA isn't selling enough games to warrant to dollars it requires to have his name on it.

I buy games (very few these days) for the game play and graphics not the cover art or name so the fact Tiger isn't on the cover makes no difference to me.  If I see there's enough new enhancements over last years I'll buy it, otherwise I'll wait until the next release.

As a marketing person what I find most interesting is that EA (like many of us) wasn't convinced there is a worthy successor to Tiger that could represent the future of the franchise and went generic.

[mcanadiens]

I, for one, enjoy the game a lot. Tiger on the cover and the title isn't important. The thing that annoys me is the business of paying extra to unlock scheduled golf courses.

[Fourputt]

Kids and 18-25 are the main demographic for most games and game systems.  I'm pretty sure PGA Tour trends outside those demographics more than most games but Tiger is not as relevant for the younger kids and 18-25 as he once was.  I would guess EA isn't selling enough games to warrant to dollars it requires to have his name on it.

I buy games (very few these days) for the game play and graphics not the cover art or name so the fact Tiger isn't on the cover makes no difference to me.  If I see there's enough new enhancements over last years I'll buy it, otherwise I'll wait until the next release.

As a marketing person what I find most interesting is that EA (like many of us) wasn't convinced there is a worthy successor to Tiger that could represent the future of the franchise and went generic.

For video games in general that it true, but the demographic for a golf simulation changes that, just as the demographic for real golf tends to be older.  The guys I played Links 2003 with online 10 years ago were mostly in my age bracket (40's to late 50's at the time).  We'd join with whoever was hosting that night, hook up on Teamspeak for voice chat, and have almost as much fun as if we were really on the course.  We mostly played through the winter late Friday or Saturday night, and we had a regular group of 4 to 12 guys from the US, Europe, and even Australia.  We would have up to 3 games going, (possibly on 3 different courses), but still all be on voice together.  It was a good time when the snow was flying outside.

By the way, there is a group working on developing what looks like it could be a really good one if it all works out.  Part of the team is the same group that modded Links after MS dropped it.  One of the guys spent countless hours with a hex editor using trial and error because MS dragged their heels for years before finally releasing the source code.  Now they have some real tools to work with on the new simulation, and Perfect Parallel looks promising.  The link to the Perfect Parallel site is HERE .

[Parker0065]

I first saw Pong when I was a teenager.  Enough said.

Pong, got it for X-Mas sometime back in the 1970's.

Thankfully I just missed the whole Video Game boom of the 1980's! By then I was only interested in Golf, Girls, and Booze!