Tiger's out, Rory's in. Electronic Arts announced that 25-year-old golfing champion Rory McIlroy will take the place of Tiger Woods as the namesake / cover athlete / mascot for its professional golfing series in June 2015, with Rory McIlroy PGA Tour on PS4 and Xbox One. You know it's the start of a new era because it doesn't even have a number at the end.
McIlroy is currently the top-ranked golfer in the world, if you weren't aware. And it's not just a different dude-in-a-polo on the cover, EA's also taking the opportunity to move the golfing series over to its very own Frostbite Engine, which also powers projects ranging from Battlefield Hardline to Dragon Age: Inquisition.
EA says the move will let it create "the most detailed courses in franchise history" and render them in their entirety all at once, getting rid of loading times between holes and letting users set up their shots from nearly anywhere.
Frostbite already has the assets working, so they should totally let you roll up in a gunboat from Battlefield 4 and tee off from there. Most EA Sports games, including the Madden, FIFA, and Live series, use the Ignite engine, so EA Tiburon might as well make the most of the opportunity. Just saying.
The PGA series was previously headed by golfing prodigy and 14-time major championship winner Tiger Woods. His working relationship with EA began with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 99, and ended after the release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 in March 2013.
