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EA stands by golfer Tiger Woods “as an athlete”, EA Sports boss Peter Moore has said.
Not only that, but the sex scandal surrounding Woods’ personal life, which has forced the golfing star to pull out of the sport for the foreseeable future, hasn’t had a negative impact on sales of his video game, according to EA.
Speaking to CNBC, Moore explained EA Sports’ decision to keep using Woods, who is reportedly in sex rehab, to promote its annual golfing simulation.
He said: “We stand by Tiger as an athlete – AP’s greatest athlete of the decade. This guy, since we signed him to be the lead for our golf products, has won 56 PGA Tour events and we still see him obviously as the world’s greatest golfer and continue to stand by him as such.”
Moore added that EA’s own research into how customers feel about Tiger Woods has “validated” the company’s decision to stick with the golfer.
“We talk to our customers every single day. We take their pulse about a lot of things and in particular, obviously, when there are situations like this in the news. We want to know how they think. It hasn’t changed. In fact, it’s validated our decision to continue with Tiger at the masthead of our games. But from our perspective, our ability to be able to make sure we’re doing what the customer wants us to do is important and yes, we’ve been talking to our customers and do so every day.”
And it seems sales of Tiger’s game haven’t suffered as a result, either.
“We’ve looked actually at the overall franchise for calendar year 2008 and 2009 and are slightly up when we look at all platforms for the Tiger franchise,” Moore revealed.
“Despite what has gone on in his personal life, we’ve seen no negative impact on sales.”
Last week EA announced it will be releasing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 this summer. The game is heading to Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 and iPhone.
