Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Vanishes From Digital Store Fronts

For a while there, EA Sports was pumping out golf games left and right for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii with a number of Tiger Woods-branded entries for fans to dig into. But it calmed down a bit this generation, releasing just one golf game — Rory McIlroy PGA Tour –and vowing to update it with new features instead. It was a great plan; and as a result it became one of the best golf simulation games out there.

But now it appears that the game is getting rained out. Yesterday, Pasta Padre filed a report indicating that PGA Tour would soon be removed from the digital stores for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as well as the Xbox One EA Access Vault program. The reason? The expiration of licenses, as is standard for older games that are offered digitally.

That said, the previous report noted that the game would be available for purchase through May 22. However, upon doing a quick check on both the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store, it appears that the game is already long gone with no sign of return. We’ve reached out to Electronic Arts to see if this was an error and if the game will be returning, but thus far there isn’t a response yet.

Not to worry, though. If you still want the game you can head to your local game store and pick up a used copy. It’ll still be supported online by the company so you can play with your friends and receive the necessary updates without any additional charge. Furthermore if you did end up buying it digitally it’s yours to keep so it won’t be removed from your library or anything like that.

When PGA Tour first launched in 2015, it was met with a great deal of criticism for its somewhat iffy presentation and mechanics. However, since that time EA Sports has tweaked the game with not only improvements to visuals and gameplay but also the aforementioned free content including a variety of courses and new modes for players to try. Since then it’s become a big favorite amongst the golfing community and still sees heavy traffic.

No word yet if EA Sports could possibly return to the PGA Tour fold with a new game but considering that the old game is retiring, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a new one take its place. We’ll see what it has to announce in just a few weeks during EA Play, which will take place in mid-June in Hollywood, California.