EA Sports today announced that Rory McIlroy will be the cover athlete for the publisher's PGA Tour franchise which has also taken on his name. Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is expected out in June - a specific date is yet to be confirmed - on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
The series previously known as Tiger Woods PGA Tour took 2014 off to provide ample development time for its debut on the new consoles and was recently pushed back further from its normal late March/early April release to June.
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour will feature for the first time in an EA Sports title the "Frostbite Engine" which assists in creating the most detailed authentic courses and environments and eliminates load times between holes. The game will also include "Fantasy Courses" and feature new broadcasters Frank Nobilo and Rich Lerner.
Woods had been receiving over $15 million a year from EA Sports. That money could no longer be justified given his injuries, declining performance, and tarnished image. Not only is Woods gone from the name and cover he won't be in the McIlroy PGA Tour game in any capacity. He has since been attached to a mobile game coming from Zynga later this year.
Sales for the Tiger Woods series plummeted following news of his transgressions in late 2009 and were never able to recover. The family-friendly Nintendo Wii, where the series had been selling the most copies, saw support vanish practically overnight. Sales dropped 86% from where it had been the previous year. EA would publish one more time on the system with Tiger Woods 12 before abandoning the Nintendo platforms.
EA Sports turns to McIlroy who actually shared the cover of Tiger Woods 11, which was the edition of the game that began the rapid descent of sales for the series. He's the right guy for the job but it remains to be seen whether his name will draw new consumers to the product.