tiger-woods-pga-tour-online posts

While Epic Games' Unreal Engine licensing business is still the biggest in the game industry, the Unity engine has been gaining more and more customers as well, particularly for web based PC games. This week Unity Technologies announced that it has signed a deal that will see the Unity engine used by one of the biggest game publishers, Electronic Arts.

EA has already used the Unity engine for its web-based PC game Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. This new multi-year agreement, according to the press release, will allow the Unity engine to be used by all of EA's development studios. EA will use the engine for the graphics behind "multiple franchises and genres". Specific games were not announced.

After nearly a year of private and open beta testing, Electronic Arts had decided to officially launch Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, their browser-based pro golf game. Obviously the launch is being timed to take atvantage of Tiger Woods' return to pro golf at the Masters tournament later this week.

While we assume there is no hidden Tiger Woods-Elin Woods fighting game in this title (although how cool would that be, huh?) the final product allows anyone to play for free on a limited amount of courses. For a subscription fee ($9.99 per month or a $59.99 yearly fee) you get access to more content and features. You can also purchase packages of points that will give players access to purchasing in-game items from the Pro Shop or rounds of golf.

After months of closed beta testing, Electronic Arts' big PC gaming sports experiment has entered into a new phase as the browser-based Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online enters open beta testing. EA Sports' golf game sounds like it will have some RPG lite features including gaining experience points and gaining fans as they play online.

Of course this is supposed to be the first attempt by EA Sports to change their PC game strategy since pretty much getting rid of all of the PC ports of their retail sports games (he FIFA franchise being the sole exception). EA will officially launch Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online sometime later this year with a subscription business model. Specific pricing has yet to be announced.

While Electronic Arts has already stated their endorsment deals with pro golfer Tiger Woods would continue, EA Sports head Peter Moore apparently decided to reinforce that statement in light of other businesses dumping Woods in the last few weeks. Late on Monday Moore posted up word on his official blog site that the current PC browser-based game Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online would continue to use his name and likeness. The game itself, which has been in closed beta testing for several months, will launch an open beta phase later in January.

So why stick with Woods when others are leaving him? Moore states, "By his own admission, he's made some mistakes off the course. But regardless of what's happening in his personal life, and regardless of his decision to take a personal leave from the sport, Tiger Woods is still one of the greatest athletes in history." EA has been working with Woods since 1997 and Moore states, "We struck that partnership with the assumption that he would remain near or at the top of his sport for years to come."

Unless you have been living without TV, radio or internet access in, say, Tahiti for the past couple of weeks you know about pro golfer Tiger Woods' "situation". The embarrassing mess that Woods has had to deal with caused him late this week to announced that he won't be playing pro golf for an "indefinite" period of time.

Officially Electronic Arts, one of many companies that has an endorsement deal with Woods, is sticking by the golfer. This year EA Sports announced their plans to launch a PC browser-based game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, that was supposed to be an example of EA Sports' new approach to PC games The game has gone through a number of closed beta tests for several months but at the moment EA has suspended the beta testing. An open beta is scheduled to launch sometime in January.

Electronic Arts' sports head Peter Moore has been hinting that the future of their sports games on the PC platform is online. Now EA has announced the first major move in that direction, revealing that EA Sports plans to launch an online version of their Tiger Woods PGA golf game to web browsers.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online will be compatible with both PC and Mac browsers and will feature a number of courses and a roster of PGA tournaments. EA plans to add new content and features on a regular basis following its launch this fall. Pricing has yet to be announced but EA is planning a "multi-tiered" subscription service. The game's official web site is already taking sign-ups to beta test the game.