Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 14 Removes Course Mastery System, Will Use Traditional DLC

[DivotMaker]

Quote: Originally Posted by N51_rob

This statement frustrates me to no end. If they wanted to give gamers on both systems all the courses for free they could. I understand everything that you say here and have no problem with the rationale behind the move, but it does bother me. So my only question is this, when the next-next gen systems coming out, how many courses will be on those disk? The lack of space argument isn't really gonna play in the future.

Good comments. I agree with the frustration. However, there is a cost to develop or update each course and my understanding is that every time a course appears in the game, there is a fee that EA pays the course, so they aren't "free" in the traditional sense of the word. And yes, I am bothered by this as well and there does not seem to be an easy explanation because EA must license EVERYTHING in TW because there is little content that comes with the PGA TOUR license unlike the franchise and Players Association licenses for Madden, FIFA, NBA, MLB, etc.....it increases the costs of developing TW when the other games do not have this issue. Costs that they can't universally absorb because of the inherently high cost of licensing in the game.

And you are right about the Gen 4 systems if the rumored 50GB BR drive comes to the 360. If true, EA is going to have to re-think their course strategies and DLC strategies. Tiger is offering 25 courses in the Historic and 20 courses in the Standard Editions....FAR more than any Golf game (PC or Console) in history. The new systems could allow them to offer every PGA TOUR course that is in the PGA TOUR season on disc, but then you still have the issue where there is no agreement with the PGA TOUR that every course on the schedule has to be in the game because there is no binding license agreement with every course and if a course does not want to be in the game, they can just say no. It will be interesting to see how this topic unfolds when the Gen 4 systems hit the market....

[TajDeni]

Quote: Originally Posted by cdawg44

All tournaments in career will be avaivable to play, however if you don't have the DLC, then you just pick another course to play the tournament on. I didn't buy all the DLC, so some tournys were just played on a different course than it was in real life.

ok, i got it now

[N51_rob]

Quote: Originally Posted by DivotMaker

Good comments. I agree with the frustration. However, there is a cost to develop or update each course and my understanding is that every time a course appears in the game, there is a fee that EA pays the course, so they aren't "free" in the traditional sense of the word. And yes, I am bothered by this as well and there does not seem to be an easy explanation because EA must license EVERYTHING in TW because there is little content that comes with the PGA TOUR license unlike the franchise and Players Association licenses for Madden, FIFA, NBA, MLB, etc.....it increases the costs of developing TW when the other games do not have this issue. Costs that they can't universally absorb because of the inherently high cost of licensing in the game. And you are right about the Gen 4 systems if the rumored 50GB BR drive comes to the 360. If true, EA is going to have to re-think their course strategies and DLC strategies. Tiger is offering 25 courses in the Historic and 20 courses in the Standard Editions....FAR more than any Golf game (PC or Console) in history. The new systems could allow them to offer every PGA TOUR course that is in the PGA TOUR season on disc, but then you still have the issue where there is no agreement with the PGA TOUR that every course on the schedule has to be in the game because there is no binding license agreement with every course and if a course does not want to be in the game, they can just say no. It will be interesting to see how this topic unfolds when the Gen 4 systems hit the market....

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the PGA owned and operated all the TPC courses? If that is the case wouldn't those come with the PGA license?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[DivotMaker]

Quote: Originally Posted by N51_rob

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the PGA owned and operated all the TPC courses? If that is the case wouldn't those come with the PGA license? Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Nope. Otherwise you would see every one of them in the game....

[Blublub]

Seems like I get into the asme argument with the EA Sports guy who posts here every year, but I still don't see why they couldn't use a model like the old Access/Microsoft Links game on PC. There you bought a course once and used it each year. You could retain the same level of graphic detail from year to year and would have the option to repurchase if they made significant improvements in the future. Great marketing model to get folks to buy new editions of the core game, as once you have that initial investment in courses you'd love to try them out with the new engine. EA's model is exactly the opposite - with no incentive for past course purchases there is, for me at least, little incentive to purchase the new game and all the DLC again each year. Particularly when the core mechanics have been largely the same for years. I could care less about competing as the toddler Tiger Woods - it's the courses that matter to me.

And I haven't followed that closely, but someone please tell me they restored the ability to save/upload shot replays. Facepalm over that being taken out in 13...

[DivotMaker]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blublub

Seems like I get into the asme argument with the EA Sports guy who posts here every year, but I still don't see why they couldn't use a model like the old Access/Microsoft Links game on PC. There you bought a course once and used it each year. You could retain the same level of graphic detail from year to year and would have the option to repurchase if they made significant improvements in the future. Great marketing model to get folks to buy new editions of the core game, as once you have that initial investment in courses you'd love to try them out with the new engine. EA's model is exactly the opposite - with no incentive for past course purchases there is, for me at least, little incentive to purchase the new game and all the DLC again each year. Particularly when the core mechanics have been largely the same for years. I could care less about competing as the toddler Tiger Woods - it's the courses that matter to me. And I haven't followed that closely, but someone please tell me they restored the ability to save/upload shot replays. Facepalm over that being taken out in 13...

Not sure there is any arguing going on, but below is one of my responses to you last year and it still pertains today as well as the posts I have made in this thread.

Quote: Originally Posted by DivotMaker

Nothing much of note has changed with the game?? I beg to differ. There are plenty of reasons why these DLC courses are not a one-time purchase. A very large reason is because of the licensing agreements that EA has with real courses. EVERY version of TW that the course agrees to have in the game, there is a licensing fee that EA has to pay for those rights. You think EA is going to eat the cost of this without passing it on to consumers? And we are talking about an AVERAGE cost of $2.70 per course for courses that 8 years ago cost $20 EACH. Hell, a decent cheeseburger costs more than that these days and you get 10 minutes of enjoyment out if it and hours and hours of enjoyment out of each DLC course. EA is damned if they do and damned if they don't.... Course licensing has changed since the Links and Tiger PC days, so you can throw that argument out the window. Tiger also had a course converter, but you would not see features like those in this day and age...

If you don't like the answer, fine. However, making the same claims each year does nothing to justify your position. Show me ANY Links PC version that came with 20-25 courses on the CD/DVD (six for PC and 6 for Links 2004 for XBox....comparing Links PC to a console game is disingenuous at best as it is apples versus apples and licensing has changed which has a COST no matter who the developer/publisher is. EA nor any other publisher is going to eat the cost of licensed courses.

Show me ANY current Golf game (Hot Shots Golf, John Daly Prostroke, etc) that ships with more than SIX courses....how many DLC courses available for HSG? One, maybe two? Why didn't they allow their DLC to come from previous versions? How many DLC courses did JDPSG offer? Not sure if they offered any. You can spin your argument any way you want, but avoiding the facts is not the answer.

[kickingguru]

Let me just add.... Call of Duty, Battlefield, Gears of War, ect... will make you pay for the exact same maps one year to the next. No freebies in those games either...... They do not even have to license those...

[ndhalogod]

For me, Tiger Woods is an every 2-3 year purchase. It's not because I hate EA or feel ripped off, golf games just don't lose their luster annually like many other titles.

'12 was a must own due to Augusta for me, and I'm really liking the '14 course offerings, as Muirfield Village is a personal favorite of mine. So I'm all-in for this year's game. My next buy of the series will probably be the second game on PS4/720, once they have the inevitable kinks worked out.

The only real way to constructively voice your displeasure with the DLC situation is to just not buy the game. Trolling every thread in this forum is weak sauce and makes me wonder if the complainers even have the integrity to not buy the game that they're ripping.