What's better then owning an awesome game ripped to a DVD or CD-R? Owning an awesome game that doesn't require any disc at all. That's what EA Sports intends to do with its launch of an online-only based Tiger Woods for PC/Mac. Although this is a huge and novel step for the gaming industry as well as EA, this venture seems somewhat expected for this day and age. With products like the iPhone, PSP Go, Onlive and various downloadable services, the demand for convenient and digital purchase is perfectly clear. This project is one of the many signs of gaming’s [potentially long-term] future.
Little is known about the game, but let me tell you, I signed up for beta-testing immediately. Being able to play on my low-end PC without splurging more than 12 MB using a technologically advanced browser, well, that’s all I need. . . I’m sold.
What’s EA’s reason for an online-only Tiger Woods edition? Does this explain why PC users didn’t receive a title last year? What are the developers able to do that would otherwise be impractical on consoles?
Hit the jump for more!!!
Earlier this month via insideblog.easports.com, Greg Rinaldi expressed the reasons behind Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online along with the basics of the game.
Why happened to Tiger Woods last year for PC? Why an online-only Tiger Woods?
First of all, I'd like to address the rationale behind the decision to make Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online a browser-based, streamed online game. A lot of you have been asking (some very passionately) why EA SPORTS didn't release a version of Tiger Woods for the PC last year. The answer is a bit complicated but it comes down to the fact that an annual, disc-based product for the PC prevents us from taking the TW experience to the next level for our fans. While we did have a loyal, core fan base supporting the product, sales for Tiger Woods PC steadily declined from 2000-2008. Peter talks about this in much greater detail in his blog "Going Online with Tiger Woods."
The decision not to release a version of TW for the PC last year was a difficult one. However, taking that time off allowed us to re-evaluate our strategy on the PC and to determine the best course of action for the franchise going forward. As Peter discusses in his blog, a packaged version of TW for the PC is just not viable in the current PC games market. So what makes an online-only browser version viable? According to IWS, over 304 million people (or 74%) of Americans are connected to the internet. And many of those internet users spend a good amount of their leisure time online. Whether that means playing games, watching videos, socializing with friends or just passing the time; the web is a major source of entertainment for many people. This is why we feel that the web is a great platform to launch a new product in the TW franchise. Additionally, server-based games give developers a lot more leverage by granting us the ability to provide unparalleled customer service, constant improvements to the game in real-time, updates to in-game content and new features which can be released as soon as they're ready. To help illustrate what that means, I've listed some of the coolest aspects of an online-streamed version of TW below. Hopefully after reading this, you'll agree that the decision to create Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is the right one for everyone.
— Greg Rinaldi
From the ground up!
Rinaldi assures us that Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is built from the ground up and features new technology that’ll provide a quality Tiger experience. For those of you with little experience on browser-based games, now may be the time to start.
The first thing I want to mention about Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is that we are literally building this game from the ground up. Nothing like this has ever been done at EA before and so we had to invest in new technology and create a new infrastructure to reach our goal of an online, streamed version of Tiger. This new technology allows for fully 3D games to be played within a web browser, a host of custom backend technologies for serving up content, peer-to-peer communication, web services and game servers. All of this new technology allows us to create a version of Tiger for the web that will have the same level of quality as the console versions, while also providing us with the ability to stream the game to you instead of having to install it from a disc or download a huge file. Instead, you simply install a small web player, which takes about 30 seconds, and the rest of the game is streamed. . .
Now, I've definitely heard some criticism from people when they discover that the game is browser-based. This is mostly due to the fact that most browser-based games are flat, 2D or very poor quality 3D. I can assure you that in spite of the fact that Tiger Online is streamed, the technology we are using allows us to deliver some very high-quality visuals. We have fully-realized 3D courses and characters with visuals that rival console games. You're not going to be playing on pictures of golf courses, your character will actually be on the course and you'll be able to see every hill, every break, tree and structure in the environment. This is a true Tiger Woods PGA TOUR experience.
— Greg Rinaldi
Features
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PC/Mac inner compatibility
Example: You will be able to start a game with your office desktop and then continue it later with your Mac Book. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online will support various browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari (hence the Mac compatibility).
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Suspend and Resume
Have you ever been browsing through some porn on your personal laptop when your Mom walks into your room? Your first reaction would be to close the browser window. The second would be to shut the lid of your laptop. They’re both good (but very suspicious) choices because that exact porn is easily accessible after both options. Thankfully, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is just like internet porn in which you can suspend play and then resume later (with yourself or others).
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Ongoing service
Much like EA’s online franchise mode for Madden NFL 10, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online will feature advanced support. Developers have much more space to tweak and update the game since it lives online, which also means the constant downloading of updates will be absent. However, my naturally paranoid ass is already fretting over the possibility of the game being down for maintenance.
Speaking as a game developer and Live Producer, this is just about the coolest part of creating Tiger Online. Because its subscription based, we're treating Tiger Online as an ongoing service. As developers, we'll have a much more direct relationship with our audience than ever before. I'll personally be leading a Live Team whose main responsibility will be to keep our players happy and to customize the Tiger Online experience to the needs of our audience. To help us do this, we'll be in constant communication with our users to gather feature requests, customer support issues and general feedback our community. We're also building a detailed telemetry tracking system that will show us not only when people are playing Tiger Online but which courses/tournaments they're playing, how often they're playing, which items they're purchasing in the ProShop and what features they're using the most. All of this information will allow us to serve up content, design features and provide the fixes and gameplay improvements that are most important to our community. Also, our server-based technology and online delivery method mean that we can make changes and updates and implement them in the game immediately. It's a total shift in how we create games and in my opinion, the next big step for EA SPORTS.
— Greg Rinaldi
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More space and more stuff!!
Not only does Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online require a measly handful of mega bytes, but it’ll feature more content than previous iterations; a result of EA’s server farms having more space than a Blu ray disc or HD DVD.
Courses are king in TW and eventually Tiger Online will be the title with the most courses on any platform. This is yet another great benefit of having a server-based, streamed online game. Since the user doesn't have to install a disc, we can provide much more content than a packaged game. If we run out of space, we can simply add more servers to host our content. Another benefit is that we can update content all the time. Our plan is to introduce new tournaments weekly, new ProShop content bi-weekly and one new course every month from the day we launch. That's 12 courses over the span of one year in addition to the courses we launch with.
— Greg Rinaldi
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Community
What would an online-based game be without solid and significant online features? Rinaldi informs us on what we should expect.
The most important part of the Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online experience is the community. This is an online game and as such it will connect Tiger fans from around the world like never before. The Tiger Online website will have many ways to communicate with your golf buddies, find challengers and make new friends. We're building a chat system in the game and on the site, friend updates, community challenges, and forums to name a few. We also plan to connect the Tiger Online community features with popular social networking tools like facebook and twitter. In the end though, it's all about the competition and community-based competition will be a focal point for Tiger Online. I can't go into too much detail right now, but I'll update you all in the near future on this and other features as they get further along in development.
— Greg Rinaldi
I know we’re all wondering the same thing, “How much will it cost?” Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait and see. Can the game justify a hefty price of $10 or $15 a month? Will utilizing Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10’s online component be a more appealing (cheaper) factor? Also, consider the annual cost of $50 for XBOX LIVE (or free via PSN). Will the subscription be low enough for some console owners to jump ship?
Nevertheless, I’m certain Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online, along with Onlive, will be a driving factor behind the industry's direction.
What if the game becomes problematic and doesn’t sell worth a damn? How will other companies react? Will this influence more developers/publishers to shift their attention to stream-based services? We shall see.
Be sure to check back with GamePro Sports for all your Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online needs.
