EA Sports PGA Tour is the new name of Electronic Arts' golf franchise, and developer EA Tiburon is making the game in the Frostbite 3 engine, the studio announced today during EA's E3 2014 press briefing.
Last fall, EA Sports and Tiger Woods parted ways, leaving the Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise without an ambassador. EA has not released a new golf title this year. EA Sports Ignite was announced last May as the engine for all of EA's sports games on the new consoles, but EA Sports PGA Tour is in development on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in Frostbite 3, the technology that powers EA's non-sports titles (such as EA DICE's Battlefield franchise).
According to EA, Frostbite 3 will allow the developers to eliminate load times between holes; EA Sports PGA Tour will stream in an entire 18-hole course at once.
"Frostbite 3 is really the perfect piece of technology for us to use as we create EA Sports PGA Tour," said Brent Nielsen, the game's executive producer, in a press release today. "There is no better engine out there for creating complex, lifelike environments, and it has allowed us to recreate some of the world's most beautiful courses, as well as create some new ideas of our own.
EA Tiburon's Cam Weber, who serves as the general manager of American football for EA Sports, explained that in addition to all the real-life golf courses players are familiar with, EA's next golf title will feature fantasy settings. You'll be able to hit a golf ball over a battleship, for example, on the Battlefield Paracel Storm course. (Paracel Storm was a multiplayer map in Battlefield 4.)
The first EA Sports PGA Tour title will be released in spring 2015.
