Somewhat obscured by the promotion surrounding Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13's fan-voted cover contest is the fact the game, when it arrives in March, will be the first EA Sports title fully playable on Xbox 360 with Kinect.
Peter Moore, then the EA Sports president, announced back at E3 that the label would begin offering Kinect-supported titles in 2012, naming the Tiger Woods series. A news release on Monday confirmed the game's Kinect features.
Moore, in his E3 presentation, indicated that titles like Madden NFL would be Kinect-enhanced—using voice commands in addition to traditional controller input, for example. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 will be fully playable with Kinect and no other controller, said Craig Evans, the game's marketing director.
"We'll be fully playable," Evans, told Kotaku. "We will be the first controller-free, voice enabled and body tracking sports simulation game to support Kinect."
Some big-label exergaming titles, including EA Sports Active 2.0 have shipped with Kinect support. Other titles like Brunswick Pro Bowling and Virtua Tennis 4 also featured Kinect support, though in the latter case some actions were assisted. At any rate, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 is easily the biggest-selling sports franchise to bring the technology aboard.
Of all EA Sports titles, Tiger Woods' Kinect support makes, perhaps, the most sense. Golf is a stationary game whose signature act can be performed with an identical movement, no analogous gestures or CPU assistance required.
"Since we finalized Tiger 12, the team has been working hard on fully integrating Kinect into this year's game," Evans said. "It's great to be the first and an innovator in this space. Our partners at Xbox 360 share this excitement."
The series has also featured PlayStation Move support since 2010's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11.
Woods himself already has played an early build of the game using Kinect, Evans said.
"We were with him mid-August here in Orlando, and Tiger gave the entire game a spin, including Kinect, while giving the development team feedback on the game," Evans said.
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