EA Sports' Moore: Gamers Still Like Tiger

Today, Tiger Woods is known as much for his philandering as he is for his prowess on the golf course, but his extramarital activities have had little effect on sales of Electronic Arts' Tiger Woods PGA Tour, according to EA Sports president Peter Moore. "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," he told CNBC this week. "Despite what has gone on in his personal life, we’ve seen no negative impact on sales." While some of Woods' other sponsorship deals have suffered -- Accenture and AT&T dropped him, as Gillette distanced itself from the golfer -- EA Sports has decided to stick with him, repeatedly placing emphasis on his sporting skills. "We stand by Tiger as an athlete – AP’s greatest athlete of the decade," Moore said. "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 also confirmed rumors that EA has been polling customers about their opinion of Woods following news of the golfer's affairs. The exec said that the feedback has "validated" the publisher's decision to keep Tiger's name on the box. Woods' widely-publicized car accident, which led to the exposure of his extramarital affairs, happened as EA was in the middle of developing Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, a free-browser based golf game that is currently in open beta. EA, which has a keen eye on digital distribution models, is hoping that the new online-based game can open up doors for new audiences. But EA is still planning for the traditional console-based Tiger releases. The publisher just announced this week Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, even as the golfer is on an indefinite hiatus from the sport.