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Electronics Arts’ upcoming golf game has been delayed until 2023. The company made the announcement on Twitter, breaking the hearts of sim golfers everywhere.
#ICYMI: We announced the new launch date for EA SPORTS PGA TOUR will be Spring 2023.
Learn more about the game here: https://t.co/Gh1bT7IBBK
— EA SPORTS PGA TOUR (@EASPORTSPGATOUR) March 23, 2022
The history of mainstream golf video games is kind of messy. Electronic Arts, at one time, was the only name in town. The Tiger Woods PGA Tour series of games were some of the best — and worst — golf games on the market. The series peaked with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2014 before dropping the Tiger Woods brand. The next game in the series was Rory McIlroy PGA Tour 2015, and it … wasn’t great.
Then EA put the series on the shelf, and golf games got a bit scarce.
HB Studios tried to fill a bit of the gap after Electronic Arts. The Golf Club and its sequel The Golf Club 2 were both fine, if a bit bland. The third game in the series reached a license agreement with the PGA Tour to include six real, licensed courses and a PGA Tour career mode.
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But The Golf Club 2019 agreement didn’t include player likenesses. The PGA Tour cited an existing license agreement with EA Sports, despite EA Sports having let its golf series die off with the 2015 release.
The latest release in the series is PGA Tour 2K21, and it is an amazing golf game. It’s also almost two years old at this point. Take-Two purchased HB Studios and signed a multiyear deal with Tiger Woods, and it hasn’t put out a golf game since.
It’s a weird mirror of what’s happening between Electronic Arts and Take-Two with wrestling games. The WWE is chatting with EA because of how the WWE 2K series has been performing. Woods is signed up with Take-Two as the Electronic Arts PGA Tour series lies fallow.
EA’s latest delay is at least something. The now pushed-to-2023 game was originally meant to be a 2022 release. A new golf game will be out eventually. But, man, I can only birdie every hole in 2K21 so many times.
2023 can’t come soon enough.
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