PGA Tour Pro

''PGA Tour'' is a series of golf video games developed and published by Electronic Arts - and later their EA Sports sub-label - since 1990. The series primarily features courses featured on the U.S. PGA Tour, and other notable courses (such as those that have hosted majors).

In 1998, EA began publishing their golf games with the endorsement of Tiger Woods. Following the '' Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf'' release, subsequent titles were named ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour'' and released yearly.

Although EA Sports developed most games in the series internally, some SKUs have come from outside developers including the first edition, '' Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf'', which Adrenalin Entertainment developed in conjunction with EA for the PlayStation and ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001'' for the PlayStation, which was developed by Stormfront Studios. IOMO also produced versions of the game for mobile phones for the 2002, 2004, and 2005 editions.

In October 2013, EA ended its relationship with Woods, being replaced with Rory McIlroy, then top golfer in the world, who became the new title athlete of the franchise, known as ''Rory McIlroy PGA Tour''.

The series was responsible for several innovations in the genre, such as the now standard three-click swing method. In 1995 a critic stated in ''GamePro'' that "The PGA series flies high above the rest for two reasons: You can completely control a shot, and you play on the best courses around." However, unlike other games in the EA Sports label, the series was often shadowed by other competitors such as the ''Jack Nicklaus'' series, ''Links'' series, ''Microsoft Golf'' or '' The Golf Pro''.

''PGA Tour'' has brought in almost $771 million since its creation in 1999 to 2013.

History

Starting in 1998, Tiger Woods was the star and face of the series. The deal with Woods was worth $6.2 to 7 million a year at the height of his 15 years at EA Sports.

According to Kotaku sources, Electronic Arts reportedly planned to outsource Tiger Woods PGA Tour 15 and give the in-house team at EA Tiburon two years to make Tiger Woods PGA Tour 16 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However, when CEO John Riccitiello resigned March 2013, this plan was dropped to save costs.

In October 2013, EA's partnership with Woods and a licensing agreement with Augusta National Golf Club reached an end. According to EA, the split is a mutual decision.

The agreement with HB Studios comes after a similar long-term licensing agreement between the PGA Tour and Electronic Arts came to an end. EA had dominated electronic golf games thanks to a partnership with 15-time major tournament winner Tiger Woods. From 1999 to 2013 ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour'' was the top video golf game on the market. After EA and Woods ended their agreement in 2013, EA developed a similar game in 2015 in a partnership with Rory McIlroy. ''Rory McIlroy PGA Tour'' did not fare nearly as well as the previous EA versions featuring Woods. The game was pulled from all digital storefronts in May 2018.

In September 2018, EA relinquished its agreement with the PGA Tour in what appears to be a move away from golf games.
In August 2018, ''PGA Tour'' licensing director Matt Iofredo said the new partnership with HB Studios is part of the sport's on-going efforts to introduce golf to a wider audience.

On March 29, 2021, EA announced that a new next-gen golf video game, currently in development on the Frostbite (game engine) under the name of EA SPORTS PGA TOUR, will take advantage of next-gen technology.
This will be through a new long-term agreement signed this year with the PGA TOUR.

EA announced on April 7, 2021, a day before the 2021 Masters, that the Masters and its home, Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, will be playable exclusively in EA Sports PGA Tour. It will be released under the name ''EA Sports PGA Tour: Road to the Masters'' and along with the Masters event, EA Sports PGA Tour will feature the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, making it the only video game to feature all four major men's professional golf tournaments.

EA Sports is returning to the golf market to compete with the PGA Tour 2K franchise from 2K Sports. The 2020 PGA Tour 2K21 featured 15 real-world courses, some of which had already hosted major tournaments. But 2K didn't have the rights to the names of the actual major tournaments.

This led EA to announce that they had captured the course and traditions of the Masters", having made their first-ever "aerial sweep of its kind to collect millions of data points, previously unavailable in golf games, to authentically recreate Augusta National in the game". (Presumably, this is an improvement over the old technique - when EA announced in 2011 that it was putting Augusta National in its game for the first time, it was using "state-of-the-art laser scanning technology.") It's not yet known if EA is using the same air-scanning technology for the game's other licensed courses.

On May 17, 2021 Electronic Arts announced that EA Sports PGA Tour would be relaunched in the spring of 2022, around the next Masters tournament which will take place from April 4 to 10, 2022.

On November 3, 2021, Electronic Arts announced that the launch date for EA Sports PGA Tour would be shifted and more plans for the release date would be shared in the coming months.

On March 22, 2022 Electronic Arts announced the delay of EA Sports PGA Tour by one year to spring 2023. EA did not give a reason for the delay, nor did they announce the game's platforms.

Games

''PGA Tour Golf'' (1990)

''Information needed''

''PGA Tour Golf II'' (1992)

''Information needed''

''PGA Tour Golf III'' (1994)

''Information needed''

''PGA Tour 96'' (1995)

''Information needed''

''PGA Tour 97'' (1996)

''Information needed''

''PGA Tour 98'' (1997)

''Information needed''

Timeline of console and release year in the title of the game

* The year in the title of the game, not the year of release.

''Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf'' (1998)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2000'' (1999)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001'' (2000)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002'' (2001)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003'' (2002)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004'' (2003)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005'' (2004)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06'' (2005)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07'' (2006)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08'' (2007)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09'' (2008)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10'' (2009)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11'' (2010)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12'' (2011)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13'' (2012)

''Information needed''

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14'' (2013)

''Information needed''

''Rory McIlroy PGA Tour'' (2015)

''Information needed''

Other titles

''PGA European Tour'' (1994)

Developed and published by Electronic Arts for the Amiga, Sega Genesis, and Amiga CD32 in 1994, for the Game Boy in 1995, and for the SNES and MS-DOS in 1996. The SNES version supports the TeeV Golf club peripheral.

''GamePro'' gave the Game Boy version a rave review, saying that it "delivers almost everything that made its 16-bit relative the best." They applauded the selection of courses, effective controls, strong realism, and the graphics, going so far as to state that when played on the Super Game Boy the game looks "almost as good as the Genesis version."

''PGA Tour Pro'' (1997)

Developed by EA Sports and published by Electronic Arts for Windows PC in 1997.

The game received a score of 5.8 ("mediocre") from GameSpot.

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour'' a.k.a. ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour Mobile'' (2009)

Developed by Exient Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports branding on April 23, 2009 for iOS. The game features commentary by Sam Torrance and Kelly Tilghman. The game offers five golfers: Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Annika Sörenstam, and Natalie Gulbis. For courses, it has Pebble Beach Golf Links, Old Course at St Andrews, TPC Sawgrass, The K Club, Doral Golf Resort & Spa, Fancourt Links, and TPC Boston.

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online'' (2010)

''Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online'' was an online streaming version of the Tiger Woods franchise.

Players took part in single player modes or in tournaments. Tournaments were split into weekly and daily competitions, sometimes based on events then happening in the PGA Tour. For example, during the US Open, the courses that have had the US Open had a discount on points.

Players chose between monthly and yearly subscriptions with unlimited access, or chose to pay for individual rounds through microtransactions. Players who didn't subscribe were still allowed to compete, although they were usually allowed to play only one or two rounds each day.

On September 6, 2011, it became integrated with the ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12'' PC version. EA Sports retired ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online'' on July 6, 2013.

Notes

References

External links

Official site
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{{DEFAULTSORT:PGA Tour
Electronic Arts franchises
EA Sports games
Golf video games
Tiger Woods
Video game franchises
Video game franchises introduced in 1990