Tiger Woods has his name on a popular video game franchise, but he won't appear on the cover of its latest edition."Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters" will be released on March 29, and for the first time ever, Woods won't be on the cover. Instead, the cover will feature a shot of Augusta's yellow flag. The iconic course is in this year's version of the game, the first time Augusta has ever been in a video game.
Woods will appear on the cover of PS3 Collector's Edition, which costs more. Last year, he shared the cover with Rory McIlroy after appearing alone for the first 10 editions.
Sales of last year's game fell 50 to 60 percent amidst Woods' personal controversy and lackluster play. EA and Woods didn't work together to promote the game last year, a change from years past.
Peter Moore, EA Sports president, said Woods' professional and personal struggles were not the reason for the change.
"If the insinuation is it's a reflection of EA Sports backing away from its relationship that goes back literally 13 years with Tiger, that's not the case whatsoever. You shouldn't read anything into the fact that Tiger's not featured on the box art of that particular edition. ... Tiger is right there on the PS3 version of the game with Move support, which was very good for us and Sony last year. We'll continue that.
"Obviously, it was a difficult year last year, but you saw toward the end of the season Tiger starting to get back to his old ways. We all, as both a sports industry and sports fans, are hopeful he comes back in full force in 2011."




