As the media ripped into Tiger Woods and his personal life, the sponsorships and spokesman deals withered away. Electronic Arts however, decided to stand by Tiger in his time of trouble, and one analyst believes that decision is costing them.
June sales of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 in the U.S. were down 68% compared to last year’s title.
“We are concerned that Woods’ scandal woes may have permanently damaged the sales potential of what we believe to be EA’s third most important sports franchise behind Madden and FIFA,” Cowan & Company analyst Doug Creutz told investors.
Creutz did not discuss the success of Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, the free-to-play PC title that has been making waves.
4 Comments
July 19, 2010
I think its partly to do with the fact that people arent watching golf as much now because Tiger isn't playing as much or as well. And when people do watch it they get boring tournaments like the US Open, won by Greame McDowell and the British Open won by Louise Oost... huizen?
Not as much interest in golf, therefore less interest in new Tiger Woods games.
July 19, 2010
i've never had an interest in golf or cared at all about tiger, even in his glory, but i'm probably in the minority
July 19, 2010
The fact that EA didn't include any kind of "hot coffee with mistresses" mini game in this years edition pretty much killed any extra sales they might have made off this game.
July 19, 2010
Tiger is like the Yankees. Any other given time when their respective sports were on, my channel wouldn't be tuned there because those sports are a sure fire sedative for me but if they were on, I watched.
As for the actual topic, his game, I never bought it. I probably would've gotten one for $10 for the sake of having one golf game.
Tigers troubles may have stirred up a problem with certain folk based on his moral choices or maybe the crowd whose into golf games simply don't have the money to throw away on a game that's probably largely unchanged from the year before. Maybe they're buying previous, cheaper golf games or maybe like Guitar Hero people are simply getting tired of the Franchise.
If I could to do some wishful thinking I would hope that the drop was all based on gamers awareness and willingness to boycott and vote with their dollars against any game supporting 'Online Pass' but I know that's not the case.