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Last year,
Electronic Arts made the golfing great share the cover of his
bestselling game with Northern Irish rookie Rory McIlroy for the first
time ever. This year, following the controversy away from the green and
lackluster play on it, Woods has been dropped from the cover of the
March 29th release of “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters” on Xbox
360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. Woods has been replaced with a shot of the
iconic yellow flag at Augusta National Golf Club, which is a major
focus for the new game. Woods will appear on the PlayStation 3
Collector’s Edition of the game, which will cost $10 more and include
five additional courses.

EA Sports has
worked with Woods since 1999 on what once was a perennial bestselling
title. But last year, sales of the game dropped in the U.S. and around
the globe dramatically. According to videogame analyst David Cole of
DFC Intelligence, sales of “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11” were down 50% to
60% on a worldwide basis from 2009.

While EA stood by
their cover athlete, they did not work with him to promote the game
last year. Traditionally, Woods does media interviews and appearances
to launch each new game.

“The thing about
golf is the whole business is tied to Tiger,” said Cole. “TV viewership
was also down over 30%. If Woods wins, viewership should increase. With
the overall sport being so tied to Tiger I don’t see EA parting ways in
the near future. However, you could be less likely to see a major
emphasis on Tiger.”

“The sales issues
of the Tiger Woods video game are much broader and deeper than Tiger’s
personal problems and has more to do with the entire golf sport
struggling in 2010,” said Jesse Divnich, Vice president of Electronic
Entertainment Design and Research.

Golf’s decline is linked to Tigers’

He continued: “Of
course, one could argue the decline in the interest of golf has to do
with Tiger’s extended absence and returned poor performance. But even
if that was true, it says a lot about the PGA Tour and their
over-reliance on one person to carry the whole league. PGA exposed
itself to this risk and now is facing the consequences.”

During a media
conference call to discuss the new game, EA Sports President Peter
Moore said that the game publisher is standing by the former number one
golfer in the world.

“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,” said Moore. “You shouldn’t read anything into the fact
that Tiger’s not featured on the box art of that particular
edition…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.” “Obviously,

it was a difficult
year last year, but you saw toward the end of the season Tiger starting
to get back to his old ways,” said Moore. “We all, as both a sports
industry and sports fans are hopeful he comes back in full force in
2011.”

Tiger will remain a
featured playable character in the new game, along with 20 other
professional golfers like 2007 Masters Champion Zach Johnson and Bubba
Watson, a Team USA member of the 2010 Ryder Cup – Team USA.

Jim Nantz and David Feherty will call the action in a new television broadcast presentation for the game.

Electronic Arts has
spent the past year focusing on bringing The Masters to its game
franchise for the first time. The studio employed new laser scanning
technology to scan every hole, bush and tree of Augusta National Golf
Club.

“I am very happy
and excited that the Masters Tournament is featured in the Tiger Woods
PGA Tour game,” said Woods in a statement. “There are many new and
unique elements in the game that will make everyone feel like they’re
really competing at Augusta National. This is great for the sport and
will connect a new audience with the Masters, a tournament I’ve been
fortunate to experience since 1995.” If The Masters fails to give Woods
the necessary sales boost, Electronic Arts might end up joining the
long list of sponsors like Gillette, AT&T, Accenture,

and Gatorade that
have parted ways with him. Divnich doesn’t believe focusing more on the
Masters will strengthen sales. “Everything correlates back to the level
of interest in golf,” said Divnich.

REUTERS