As we know, NHL 14 and the Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise aren’t going to be appearing on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this year, with a new Tiger Woods not appearing at all this fiscal year.
You won’t be without those two series on next-gen consoles for long though, as Frank Gibeau, President of EA Labels told IGN that, “you can fully rest assured that you’ll see the full EA Sports lineup over the course of gen 4 [PS4/Xbox One].” He then added, “It’s about resourcing, tactical market opportunities, how big the platform is.”
On that topic of Tiger Woods taking a bit of a hiatus, Gibeau talked about how EA only has “finite resources” and “finite talent.” Because of this, Frank says he wants to make sure “that our best people aren’t spread too thin,” so as not to “end up with a bunch of 70 rated games. I’d rather have two 90s than five 70s.”
Following Frank saying “golf is a vital part of our business and we believe in it greatly,” focus shifted to NBA Live 14 and how it’s appearing solely on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One:
At one time we had a great business in basketball. There was a great rivalry between 2K and us back in the day. Unfortunately, we didn’t deliver what we wanted to deliver, and they did a great job creating an exceptionally good sports game. We thrive on competition. We want to come back at them in gen 4. That’s one of the reasons why we’re focused exclusively on gen 4, so we don’t have to compromise the game at all to get a gen 3 version of it out. We’re in basketball for the long term. Our goal for this next cycle is to build a great basketball business and compete with 2K and win back the customers through our quality and our performance.
If those aren’t fighting words, we don’t know what are.
It remains to be seen if “the full EA Sports lineup” includes franchises like SSX and Fight Night, so stay tuned for any announcements regarding those as they may arrive.
Which sports franchise do you most want to play on PS4 or Xbox One? Let us know in the comments below.
