I was just perusing some older posts from last year and came across my rant from last August titled – Madden 09 Release Day Is Here For Some Gamers. I was on my soapbox about “us PC gamers” being left behind by the company that develops two of the biggest sports franchises going – Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Madden NFL.
I think these are ploys to quiet the masses of PC gamers who have carried Madden through the 20 years of its existence. On such a significant anniversary the very group of individuals who have made this game what it is and gave it the life that brought it to the consoles have been left behind with promises of future “possibilities” on the PC.
Sorry Mr. Moore but I think you have made an error here in leaving behind such a loyal fan base. The reason the discussion is so spirited is that we PC gamers are passionate and we have always enjoyed our Madden and this year we will not be able to do that. And yes, I know it is “just a game”.
I was pretty upset about missing out on my two favorite games and at the time there was absolutely no plans in my future to move over to console gaming. Funny thing is less than two months later I owned an Xbox360 and had made the move from PC Gamer to Console Gamer. I actually bought the console right after the fall release of Tiger Woods 2009. I also did not look back to my PC as a gaming platform either.
Actually that is not totally true – I do not do very well at the First Person Shooter genre on the Xbox360 so I did wrap up a couple of games I had on the PC before I totally shut the door on PC gaming.
So although I was definitely not happy last year at the time – I have to admit I am pretty satisfied with the console as my gaming platform these days :-)
I do want to mention something that relates to last years post and some of the comments Peter Moore (EA dude) made about PC gaming at the time they were shuttering so many PC versions of EA games.
Contrary to some of the passionate posts on this blog, we have no intention to abandon the PC as a sports gaming platform. Rather, we are taking this time to re-define the way we bring you compelling experiences while at the same time making sure we make the appropriate and necessary investments for the future. I ask for your patience, understanding, and openness to new and unique ideas…
Well this year actually has seen the delivery of a PC based version of Tiger Woods that is played online via your PC. The experience is called appropriately Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online.
It is currently in beta and open for signups and as you can see by the bottom line on the graphic if is free to play during the beta. I am sure there is a revenue stream there somewhere down the road. As long as it is comparable to what someone might have paid for the PC version of the game then it just might be accepted by PC gamers.
I have logged in and tried it out and although initially it only had three click control for controlling your swings it played very well through the game browser. Since then they have added True Swing to the options which is terrific.
To play you have to download the Unity Web Player which is just over 3 MB in size but that is the magic that makes it work so you can not avoid it if you want to play.
I highly recommend you PC gamers head over and try this out – I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what they accomplished here. It will be interesting to see where they go with other games as well.
P.S. OK – I gave Mr. Moore a pretty hard time last year – it certainly seems as if they are carrying through with their plans to bring PC gaming to the PC in a new and fresh way. I stand corrected Mr. Moore.
