With Tiger Woods playing The Masters this week for his return to Golf, it was only fitting that EA SPORTS’ head honcho Peter Moore hit the TV circuit to discuss their backing of Tiger Woods throughout his scandal-ridden recent past.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Power Lunch” news show, Peter discussed how they approached the Tiger Woods issue, as their Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online browser-based PC game just transitioned from public beta to full release.
“We are a very different company, in regards to our relationship with Tiger, than other sponsors that have cut bait. He’s in the game. He’s not an arm’s length endorser.”
Peter went on to explain how development of PGA Tour Online started over 18 months back, before the scandals of Tiger’s personal infidelity were blown open.
“We’ve been very clear in our support of Tiger Woods the golfer,” Moore emphasized. “We have a very strong relationship. He’s a gamer himself, and instrumental himself in helping us develop this game over the past 15 years.”
“But then when you look at the facts and what we stand for, it’s the ability to deliver a world-class simulation of golf, around the world, and while we’re supportive of Tiger in the challenges he’s gone through in personal life, this is about simulating the game of golf, and we’ve been very, very clear it’s about supporting Tiger the golfer.”
Despite the possible forever tarnation of Tiger’s name, it hasn’t impacted EA’s online golf game. According to Moore, EA saw more than two million rounds of golf played, with 800,000 unique visitors last month alone in Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. And that was for the public beta.
“It’s not your your typical core gamer,” Moore said. “It’s a 40-year-old male, typically, who typically wouldn’t buy our core game on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Certainly we think a strong showing [at The Masters] will help sales, but it’s not a determining factor. Tiger has had some of the personal issues in his life over the past month and we’ve seen no dropoff.”
Here’s the news clip of Moore speaking to CNBC.
Don’t forget that the console edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 releases on June 8th, 2010 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and iPhone.
Via Kotaku