Tiger Woods 08 will introduce GamerNet

IGN has posted a first look at Tiger Woods 08. In it two new innovative features are touched upon. ‘Photo Face’ which involves scanning your own face into the game for your created golfer, and ‘GamerNet’ a youtube style video service for the game.

GamerNet clearly targets the YouTube and MySpace generation. Gamers, EA says, have changed. We play online, we share pictures and video clips, we fight for achievement points and gamer score and virtual trophies. Using a nifty new technology, the development team, formerly of Hypnotix and Outlaw Golf fame, has enabled you to save a single shot, a single hole, nine holes or an entire round to your hard drive (18 holes takes up only 200k). And with a touch of a button, you can upload all of this to GamerNet in a matter of seconds.

“When you live in the MySpace and YouTube world,” says producer Mike Taramykin, “you realize that everyone is connected. We looked at user-created content and said, ‘What about user-created gameplay?'”

Well thats certainly going to be a fun feature. With NCAA Football 08, many people really got into using the screenshot ability and transferring them to their PC to show off to others. This is taking it to a completely new level.

With the way user generated content has driven sites like youtube and others, this is really tapping into that trend. While sports titles tend to die off after a period of time, something like GamerNet could really increase the longevitity and uniqueness of a title. There is no doubt that it will be huge, and hopefully we will see similar things in other EA Sports titles as well.