You know what they say, golf video games are like London buses. In October, on the same day Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2K23 landed, EA Sports – entirely coincidentally, I’m sure – released a teaser trailer for their upcoming return to the market.
Having dominated the golf game world from 1990 to 2015 – thanks particularly to 16 Woods-endorsed years in the middle – Electronic Arts have now been out of the loop for eight years since their last effort, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour.
Now, after a 12-month delay, EA Sports PGA Tour will officially launch in spring with The Road to the Masters.
This was the teaser we got at the back end of last year…
Of course, it’s one thing to make your game look snazzy in a teaser trailer and a whole other thing to back that up in the gameplay.
But now we have an update on that, too…
And now we have a full-blown look into what the career mode will look like…
To say we’re excited would be an understatement.
You can watch a full rundown of new features on the EA Sports PGA Tour YouTube channel.
So what do we know?
The most exciting news is that EA Sports has an exclusive licence with all four men’s majors – the Masters, PGA Championship, US Open, and The Open – as well as the LPGA and the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, and featured players including Jordan Spieth, Lexi Thompson, and Jin Young Ko. (It will be interesting to see who else they get, considering 2K23 already has the likes of Woods, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler, Lydia Ko, and Brooke Henderson.)
EA Sports PGA Tour will also use the company’s own Frostbite engine, which has helped make their headline games in other sports – most notably the FIFA football and Madden NFL franchises – become bestsellers, to make the game as visually appealing as you’d expect, particularly when recreating courses such as Augusta National Golf Club and St Andrews’ Old Course.
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Other major venues lined up to be in the game are Pebble Beach, Southern Hills, Kiawah Island’s Ocean course, Torrey Pines, Brookline, and Evian Resort, as well as PGA Tour staples TPC Southwind and East Lake.
EA have also revealed that golfers will be “authentically replicated like never before with ShotLink powered by CDW, the PGA Tour’s proprietary real-time scoring system, and data from TrackMan, a world leader in 3D ball flight measurement and swing analysis”, which sounds pretty cool if you like that kind of thing.
Another thing of note is the game only launch on the next-gen consoles – PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S – as well as on PC.
Watch this space, as they say.
EA Sports PGA Tour launch date
And, the news you’ve been waiting for…
The release date for EA Sports PGA Tour is April 7, 2023 – during the Masters Tournament – with early access available through Deluxe editions of the game.
Visit the EA Sports website for more information.
