14 DAY TRIAL // EA boss John Riccitiello recently talked about his company's prestigious golf simulator franchise, which, for the last 12 years, had the name of Tiger Woods permanently associated with it, saying that the famous golfer needs to start performing better in order to stay on the cover.
Tiger Woods has gone through a lot of problems lately, but even if sponsors bailed on the golfer, EA stood by him, and still released titles in the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series.
Even more, the recent Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010 managed to achieve impressive sales figures when it was released at the beginning of this summer.
Now though, seeing as how Woods' performances are slipping, EA boss John Riccitiello revealed that his company might change the title of the series.
"It's a business relationship on the basis of we make the best golf game and he's the best golfer," Riccitiello said.
This doesn't mean that the company is already trying to get rid of Tiger, as the EA CEO did point out that his remarks were "no threat against Tiger. Both of those things need to be true in the long run for the partnership to make sense."
Woods lost the Number 1 world ranking in October, after holding it, with just a few brief interruptions, since the first Tiger Woods PGA Tour game in the series was released back in 1998.
As of right now, the professional golfer is without a win on the PGA Tour, for the first time ever in his career.
Riccitiello's statements hark back to the words of Peter Moore, the boss of the EA Sports division, who revealed during the Tiger Woods scandal that EA has a special kind of relationship with the professional golfer, and won't back out due to his troubled personal life.
“Our relationship with Tiger has always been rooted in golf. We didn't form a relationship with him so that he could act as an arm's length endorser. Far from it. We chose to partner with Tiger in 1997 because we saw him as the world's best, most talented and exciting golfer. We struck that partnership with the assumption that he would remain near or at the top of his sport for years to come.”
EA is also hedging its bets, as the company released a browser-based golf game for the Facebook social network, without the name of Woods in the title, just PGA Tour Online.
"He sort of stuck with us for a very long time and we made great business together," Riccitiello said, "and we're willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a period of time."
What do you think?
Is EA right in looking elsewhere if Tiger Woods continues his losing streak or do you think the company should still be confident in the golfer for at least a few more years, even if his performance declines and after the big scandals that occurred earlier this year?