Next Generation Tennis

Due for release in July 2002.

Who has never dreamed of stepping into a famous player’s shoes, of playing onthe centre court and of having your winning shot applauded by a jubilant crowd? For those who want to try their luck, Next Generation Tennis will give themaccess to the most prestigious tennis courts in the world.

For the casual as well as the passionate fan, Next Generation Tennis combinesresponsive gameplay and stunningly realistic settings.

Playing Next Generation Tennis is like playing a match and watching it live onTV at the same time, with slow motion replays, umpire announcements, realisticplayer behaviour and crowd noise all adding that touch of authenticity. Withover 10 game modes (including 4 hidden ones), Next Generation Tennis offers abroad palette of pleasures, from the most classic to the most innovative. Checkout the attached shot of two of the world’s top tennis starts, Gustavo Kuerten(curly hair) and Sébastien Grosjean (brown hair) enjoying a game of NextGeneration Tennis at this year’s E3 (for a high-resolution image please replyto this email; for player biogs, see below).

The Career mode, for example, lets the user create a player profile (man orwoman) and take on the greatest players on the professional circuit. As anupcoming bright hope of the tennis world, the player’s aim is to reach the verytop after twenty seasons. Taking part in training sessions and winning at singlesand doubles will improve the player’s abilities as he strives for perfection.

The player created can then be reused in the other game modes (see ‘game features’below). A password will be provided at the end of each career to enable theplayer to compare his performance with hundreds of others on the game’s officialwebsite…

Certain modes take full advantage of the Multiplayer mode (such as the ‘Challenge’mode which allows the player create his own tournaments) while others are purearcade style (as in the ‘Two against one’ and ‘Race’ modes in which the playermust defeat as many opponents in a row as possible in one-game or one-pointmatches). In most modes, the player can unlock bonuses related to his performance(new modes, court types, locations, players, kit and videos).

Thanks to the help of the teams at Roland Garros and the US Open, who providedexact plans of their stadiums, the development team were able to producefaithfully accurate models of the most famous courts at Roland Garros and theUS Open, as well as of 6 other courts with different surfaces (grass, synthetic).The players (including ten top professionals – see Appendix, below) must provethemselves on the authentic courts of these world-famous tournaments, in frontof crowds who react to their performance.

For the creation of Next Generation Tennis, Wanadoo put together a team ofover 17 people from Carapace and 5 from Spark, all passionate about sport andwith experience of developing top level games. Their CVs include titles suchas Rayman 2, F1 Racing, Dinosaur, etc…

To this team we added the specialist experience of Alain Solvès. A trainer onthe professional circuit, he defined each player’s profile, giving them personalplaying styles and tactics in order to increase the game’s realism. His inputwas crucial in ensuring that the game reproduced all of tennis’ many subtleties.

Next Generation Tennis – Game Features