EA Sports announced yesterday that it’s moving forward with its Tiger Woods-branded Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online game, without saying anything specific regarding the next Xbox 360 version of the virtual golf experience (although one tends to assume that this type of support means only good things for the PGA series). A couple quotes from Peter Moore's blog post (I tend to agree with his findings):
Our relationship with Tiger has always been rooted in golf. We didn’t form a relationship with him so that he could act as an arm’s length endorser. Far from it. We chose to partner with Tiger in 1997 because we saw him as the world’s best, most talented and exciting golfer. We struck that partnership with the assumption that he would remain near or at the top of his sport for years to come. 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.
He also mentions that the online version of the game has been in closed beta for eight months, which sounds like a much bigger reason that the video game publishing/development company is sticking with Mr. Woods: Who would want to throw away all that time and money just to pick another cover golfer?
I have to think that there aren't many other pro golfers out there with the looks to grace the cover of a yearly EA Sports video game but as other sponsors are fleeing, one wonders if Woods’ image problems are enough to blow his endorsement deals (Gillette, AT&T, et.c have already left). I don’t think video games require quite as much of a squeaky-clean image as other deals may, and I guess I wasn't that affected by Woods’ “transgressions” in the first place; he's still one hell of a golfer.
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