EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

[lowpaiddonkey10]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

That might very well be the case but look at the trouble they are in now.

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

That might very well be the case but look at the trouble they are in now.

They'd be in affected by this anyway...there's likely going to be names of pros in career mode in both games, so they'd be having to remove them with each of these updates. Maybe it's not as demanding as removing animated pros, but it's still going to be an ongoing issue for a while.

[lions67]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

You guys are putting way too much thought into what’s happening with these two games lol
It’s kinda funny haha
You wanna know what I want to see happen?
I want to see that damned EBCBoxing game get released sometime before this decade is out lol
Now THAT game is the definition of getting strung along !

Ps.
I want a new golf game pronto lol

[jbd345]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

Still a go but if 2K release their game before new year and it bombed with less than 1M copies, available with old and new gen consoles + PC... all bet are off.

2k will never hit that inflated number again. Released during the height of the pandemic, people were home, only golf game on the market, and the sport saw massive growth in general. If they are using that as a benchmark that’s a huge mistake. I’d love to see what the retention numbers are and how many people kept playing.

[VoltSwoosh]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

2k will never hit that inflated number again. Released during the height of the pandemic, people were home, only golf game on the market, and the sport saw massive growth in general. If they are using that as a benchmark that’s a huge mistake. I’d love to see what the retention numbers are and how many people kept playing.

I also believe just adding PGA2K got a lot of people thinking 2K had actually made a PGA game at the same leval as say NBA2K, when in reality it was a polished up indie game called The golf club V4.


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[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

I also believe just adding PGA2K got a lot of people thinking 2K had actually made a PGA game at the same leval as say NBA2K, when in reality it was a polished up indie game called The golf club V4.


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2K/HB hit the jackpot with PGA 2K21...so many factors led to it having the success it did. And it likely won't hit those figures again. They have to know that.

Anyway, calling 2K21 a "polished up indie game" is a bit harsh...even though I do see/know what you mean. Sure, it had hallmarks back to the TGC games, but if you fire up even TGC19 (which even had PGA Tour and 2K involvement), 2K21 really looks and plays much more fluid and refined. They added more real-life content, more licensed courses, and even included the pro golfers (albeit in an underwhelming way). It's not NBA 2K (which is a series that's been around much, much longer than PGA 2K, so it makes sense), but it qualifies as a competent (yet definitely flawed) AAA golf title.

Looking at EA, they did the exact opposite with Rory...they went from a fully fleshed out AAA golf game with Tiger Woods 14, and released a Frostbite golf tech demo with Rory...it had just 8 courses at launch, and they stripped down everything to such a bare bones level they couldn't even justify paid DLC, which is saying something for a sports game that came out in that generation. Career mode was just basic menu screens - gone was the money list, the trophy room, sponsors, and even an actual schedule of events. It still had 3/4 majors, but it felt so inferior to what TW14 offered. Rory had its positives, too, but it was just such a step back.

I truly hope EA learned from the mistakes made with Rory. They've had long enough to formulate a plan and execute it. And as far as 2K goes, they're honestly on an upward trajectory...looking at the improvement/success from TGC1 to 2K21, their game has gotten better and more robust with each entry. They do have much to correct, but they have a much more solid foundation. I hope this leads to having two amazing games that are both worth the price of admission when they come out...whenever.

[mrsaito]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

The fully patched version of Rory ended up being an okay game imho, but following TW 14 a disappointment.

[scagwi]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

2k will never hit that inflated number again. Released during the height of the pandemic, people were home, only golf game on the market, and the sport saw massive growth in general. If they are using that as a benchmark that’s a huge mistake. I’d love to see what the retention numbers are and how many people kept playing.

110% spot on right here ^^

An excellent point about the retention also, especially with how they sort of stopped doing much fixing or updating.

[VoltSwoosh]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

Here’s something interesting… Rory 15 has 13 real licensed PGA Courses . Not counting fantasy courses like Cliffs at lighthouse Point.

By comparison, 2K21 had…. 15 licensed PGA courses. Not counting HB fantasy courses.

What do most people play in 2K21? The official courses.

I think EA will be just fine with it’s limited number of courses. (No course creator)


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[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

110% spot on right here ^^

Not only all of the points you mentioned, but it was also released into an environment where they were the only licensed PGA game to choose from.

An excellent point about the retention also, especially with how they sort of stopped doing much fixing or updating.

I have no idea how many people still play 2K21, but one thing that's fairly easy to see is how many people play their TGCT rounds each week.

TGCT is said to be a relatively small part of the total player group for 2K21, but it's pretty consistent in terms of the numbers of participants each week.

Here is this week's current breakdown of TGCT participants:

Platinum Tour - 156 participants
Elite Tour - 160
Kinetic Tour - 167
Challenge Circuit-A - 153
CC-B - 146
CC-C - 163
CC-D - 147
CC-E - 148
CC-F - 151
CC-G - 150
CC-H - 142
CC-I - 150
CC-J - 153
CC-K - 127
CC-L - 128
Beer League - 107
True Sim (players are allowed to play this tour AND another, so the count might be a bit inflated) - 168

So that totals up to at least 2,348 unique players that are a part of TGCT that keep playing at least 2 rounds in their society each week (they'd only have to play 2 if they get cut, but most probably play all 4 no matter what). If you add in True Sim, which might include some double-up, the number is 2,516.

Again, no clue how this factors into the total player count for the game. But the thought that has always been thrown around is that TGCT is not a huge portion of the total player base.

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

Here’s something interesting… Rory 15 has 13 real licensed PGA Courses . Not counting fantasy courses like Cliffs at lighthouse Point.

By comparison, 2K21 had…. 15 licensed PGA courses. Not counting HB fantasy courses.

What do most people play in 2K21? The official courses.

I think EA will be just fine with it’s limited number of courses. (No course creator)

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Yes, but you have to consider that, for a very long time, the official courses were the only ones available to play in any online matchmaking modes. Plus, they are all the career mode courses. So yes, those courses will have the most plays.

But then you'd have to go and add up plays on all the other courses out there that have thousands of plays...yes, that's not as many plays as the official ones, but still quite a lot. I released a course in June, and it has over 6,000 plays on it. People are still playing and interested in new courses that come out.

I do agree...EA's game will be fine with their course list. It makes total sense for them and their focus - big events and big-name tracks.

But there's a reason HB has stuck to a 2-year cycle for their game series...people keep making courses for it this late into its life. EA had to do an annual release for so long because the same courses tended to get old after 12 months of playing them. And then they'd release the same courses in games over and over again, or even worse, make them available as part of the base game one year, then make them paid DLC the next.

[VoltSwoosh]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

Yes, but you have to consider that, for a very long time, the official courses were the only ones available to play in any online matchmaking modes. Plus, they are all the career mode courses. So yes, those courses will have the most plays.



But then you'd have to go and add up plays on all the other courses out there that have thousands of plays...yes, that's not as many plays as the official ones, but still quite a lot. I released a course in June, and it has over 6,000 plays on it. People are still playing and interested in new courses that come out.



I do agree...EA's game will be fine with their course list. It makes total sense for them and their focus - big events and big-name tracks.



But there's a reason HB has stuck to a 2-year cycle for their game series...people keep making courses for it this late into its life. EA had to do an annual release for so long because the same courses tended to get old after 12 months of playing them. And then they'd release the same courses in games over and over again, or even worse, make it available as part of the base game one year, then make it paid DLC the next.

Ehhh, EA did a lot more than add 4 courses each year.


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[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

Ehhh, EA did a lot more than add 4 courses each year.


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Let's look...

Tiger 09 (base game): 16 courses
Tiger 10 (base game): 16 courses
Tiger 11 (base game): 17 courses
Tiger 12 (base game): 15 courses
Tiger 13 (base game): 16 courses
Tiger 14 (base game): 20 courses
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour (base game): 8 real courses at release, 1 was a pre-order bonus that was later given to all, then another few added via patches, bringing the real course total to 14. (19 total were available, but that included the Battlefield course, a pirate volcano course, and other fantasy tracks - another way to look at it...16 courses in the game were part of career mode - the 14 real ones and two of the more realistic fantasy ones)

Yes, there were "collectors editions" and lots of paid DLC which allowed for more, but, since 2K21 doesn't have any of that, a fair comparison to me is to look at what you get with the base offering.

And sure, you might have gotten a new course as part of the base game, but you also lost some that were in the previous games, or you had to purchase them via DLC to get them in the new one. And some courses were "pre-order bonuses", too, and were also tied to where you preordered the game from!

Just a note...the Wii versions of Tiger Woods games had nearly double the amount of courses the PS3/Xbox 360 versions had...I think I saw one version of the Wii game had 27 courses on it.

[VoltSwoosh]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

Let's look...

Tiger 09 (base game): 16 courses
Tiger 10 (base game): 16 courses
Tiger 11 (base game): 17 courses
Tiger 12 (base game): 15 courses
Tiger 13 (base game): 16 courses
Tiger 14 (base game): 20 courses

Yes, there were "collectors editions" and lots of paid DLC, but, since 2K21 doesn't have any of that, a fair comparison to me is to look at what you get with the base offering.

And sure, you might have gotten a new course as part of the base game, but you also lost some that were in the previous games, or you had to purchase them via DLC to get them in the new one. And some courses were "pre-order bonuses", too.

Just a note...the Wii versions of Tiger Woods games had nearly double the amount of courses the PS3/Xbox 360 versions had!

I don’t mean course wise, I meant other features.


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[scagwi]

Re: EA Sports PGA Tour Releases in Spring 2023

All I know is that with DLC (which I'm fine with, especially for real courses done by the first party), I had like 42-44 courses in TW14

That's all I need
(especially with gorgeous Frostbite visuals/experience)

My course list on Perfect Golf has ended up around that number after adding, testing, playing and pruning over time to keeping just the actually great ones.