FIFA 06 and Tiger Woods 06: Two More Stinkers for the Xbox 360

To wrap up my month-long look back at the 20-year anniversary of the Xbox 360 launch, I saved Tiger Woods 06 and FIFA 06 for last because they’re more alike than you might think.

These were two more bad games that launched on the Xbox 360 — for some of the same reasons other EA Sports games were bad at launch — but they shared a lot of the same DNA in terms of how they failed. On top of that, as the generation aged, these two series improved faster than other EA Sports games out there.

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Looking first at FIFA, this was a true litmus test that answered the question, “how much can we really nickel and dime these bozos?”

There were technically three different versions of FIFA that released in a 12-month period — albeit the World Cup game was priced at $30 when it came out. That said, I don’t even know if EA gets credit for the reduced price on that game considering you can’t play the World Cup in the 360 launch game (it really is just the Road to the World Cup), so really you were paying $90 to get the “complete” World Cup experience.

Nevertheless, the most important note about these games is that FIFA 06 failed what I call the “Grandma Test” on most levels. The Grandma Test is all about judging how likely it is that granny fails to get you the present you asked for if she goes to a store to buy it.

If you were to ask for FIFA 06, grandma might disappoint you because here’s what was in stores by the end of it all:

We have FIFA 06 Soccer on the PS2, FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup (the 360 launch game), and then FIFA World Cup: Germany 2006 (also on the 360 that would come out in April). On top of there being multiple versions of the ‘06 game, the names of the games themselves were awkward because of course FIFA (the entity) had specific trademark branding they wanted on the game as well.

Point being, the likelihood grandma got you the wrong game was high. It’s all the more fitting I bring up the Grandma Test during the Xbox 360 launch because the ultimate Grandma Test might be anything relating to the Xbox itself.

“Granny, I want the Xbox Series X|S — NO, not the Xbox One X|S!”

This sort of release schedule would become commonplace for the FIFA series during “cup” years as “special editions” would come out for things like the World Cup and UEFA Euro on top of the “normal” FIFA annual release. EA would stick with this for many years before converting to more of a DLC-style format many years later.

On the other side of things, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 was perhaps the best of the Xbox 360 EA Sports launch games by default. But, again, that does not mean it was a good game. It was the best of the worst games.

That said, we were also less than 12 months away from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 arguably becoming the best EA Sports game released in 2006 on the Xbox 360.

Of course, this makes it all the more shocking that the end of the first HD generation is also essentially the end of EA’s golf dominance. By the time the PS4 and Xbox One come around, EA is calling its golf series Rory McIlroy PGA Tour and releasing just one version of it on those consoles before getting out of the golf game altogether until 2023.

So with the stage now set, let’s go back 20 years and look at why these games ultimately failed when the Xbox 360 launched, while also taking a look at why both would turn things around before the end of the generation. We’ll have video clips (from the 360 and PS2 versions of these games), plus some magazine clippings from the time as well to help showcase the ups and downs of these 2005 sports games.

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