Tag Archives: grand slam tennis

EA Sports is still planning on releasing 360 and PS3 versions of Grand Slam Tennis, division boss Peter Moore’s told VG247, but only when motion controllers have launched for both systems.

Moore delayed the games in August following the release of a MotionPlus-compatible Wii version.

“You will do on the new motion technologies,” Moore said when asked if we’ll see the 360 and PS3 SKUs actually make it to market.

“One thing that becamse glaringly obvious is that once you started playing Wii MotionPlus tennis and then you go back to [traditional controllers].”

Moore added that MotionPlus had “ruined” tennis games on standard controllers for him, but reiterated that the success of EA Sports Active had been an equal part of the decision to slip.

“It’s two things,” he said. “Active is such a powerful platform that we have to bring in resources to take advantage of that and get more stuff coming down the pipe.

“Secondly we’ve decided just to wait for Natal and for the Sony motion controller to come out.”

Natal is expected late next year, while Sony’s motion tech should release next spring.

Moore was speaking at GamesCom in Cologne.

Eurogamer’s posted its re-review of EA’s Grand Slam Tennis, bumping the score from 5/10 to 8/10.

The site said last week it was to reassess the game after it found the Wii MotionPlus-enabled sports title to be sluggish on its Wii debug unit.

Reviews, eh? Millions of words through the link.

EG’s just said it’s to re-review EA’s Grand Slam Tennis, and has pulled its original 5/10 score.

The site’s editor, Tom Bramwell, said on his blog today that the game’s retail version is significantly more responsive than the dev kit set-up used for the review.

“As a result, I’m immediately withdrawing Eurogamer’s Grand Slam Tennis review until we will publish a new review based purely on retail console play,” said Bramwell.

“The existing text will remain online with big whopping signposts on it that highlight the above, and once the replacement review is published, it will redirect to that.”

The new score will go live on Monday.

EA interviewed tennis legend John McEnroe in a mailer sent out to the press, and while it does indeed advertise Grand Slam Tennis, there are a few interesting tidbits in it.

For one, this is John McEnroe’s first appearance in a videogame, and he seems rather excited about it.

“I’m pretty excited to be with some of the younger guys and how we match up,” he said. “I’ve waited a long time—50 years young—so I’ll see how I match up against the Nadals and the Federers; probably not real well but maybe this will help my chances.”

Best part was when he was asked why he wanted his famous 70′s ‘fro to be his look for the game. He responded like most athletes would looking back on their prime.

“Can you blame me? It was a magical time though I’m probably biased since it was the time I was playing. But the late 70s into the mid-80s especially was a great time in tennis, it seemed to be exploding in popularity. We did do things a little differently, a lot of characters out there. I think you’ll see even me with my shorts a little shorter than the other players. We had some wild looking hair and the headbands.

“People remember that and I look back on it fondly, not every hair style but there’s a couple others that I could live with. The most famous of the matches, particularly that Borg match in ’80 Wimbledon, the way he looked in his outfit and my puffy hair look, it’s probably more appropriate I would say to have that one.”

You can read the full thing over on GoNintendo.

EA has said that its upcoming sports games using Wii MotionPlus will not give gamers a competitive multiplayer advantage over those who do not have the add-on. Doesn’t

“We didn’t want to make it more beneficial for players who have MotionPlus,” said Grand Slam Tennis producer Thomas Singleton. “It’s just different.”

Differences between the two options of control will boil down to feeling and mechanics.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis are the first ones to use WMP, and both hits stores June 8.

More over on Kotaku.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 and Grand Slam Tennis will release a week early, EA said today.

Both games will now hit the US on June 8, and both support Wii MotionPlus. Which is why the games have been brought forward: the peripheral launches on the same day.

Press release here.

Destructoid got a hands on with EA’s Grand Slam Tennis at an event yesterday, and is calling it the most realistic tennis game to date.

Playing split-screen co-op, it was noticed that there was a bit of a lag between the players actual swings and what happened on-screen – this did not deter from the game being fun though.

As for graphics, the site said the game “doesn’t aim for realism in the visual department; instead, it succeeds with a neat, stylized look”.

There were also no frame-rate drops, which is always a good thing.

The game’s out June 12 and 15 in Europe and North America, respectively.

After the break, there’s a video of producer Thomas Singleton explaining how the game works.

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Both Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis are to be bundled with Wii MotionPlus, EA just announced.

The company said specifically that, “the Wii versions of both Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis will be bundled with Nintendo’s new Wii MotionPlus accessory when the titles ship to stores this summer in Europe. In North America, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 will be bundled with the Wii MotionPlus accessory at launch.”

MotionPlus launches in the US on June 8 and in Europe on June 12.

Release after the break.

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Another load of shots for Grand Slam Tennis were released today, along with a video.

Don’t forget that you can use Wii MotionPlus with it once the peripheral releases on June 8.

Look below for the video, and on CVG for the pretty little pictures.

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There’s some in-game footage of EA Sports’ Grand Slam Tennis after the break, and it’s all looking very great.

The supports Wii MotionPlus, and will no doubt be a must-have for the Wii Sports crowd.

Take a look. It’ll be out this summer.

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EA Grand Slam Tennis producer Thomas Singleton has told TechRadar that Wii’s MotionPlus can be “overly responsive.”

“It truly is giving you that one-to-one control movement of your arm motion and then mapping it directly to that one-to-one movement of your character on screen,” said Singleton.

“At times it’s overly responsive. It had so much fidelity that at times we have limited that fidelity to make it a compelling experience and giving you full total control.”

Grand Slam Tennis has no confirmed release date as yet.

Thanks, CVG.

Amazon.de’s listing Grand Slam Tennis as a bundle with Wii MotionPlus for €54.

The release date’s listed as July.

This isn’t confirmed at all. We’ll drop EA a line. Thanks GAF and Joystiq.

Grand Slam Tennis producer Thomas Singleton has posted a video explaining the game’s Wii MotionPlus controls.

The background noise in it is just awful, but this is what we picked up:

• The game stands on it’s own with or without the WMP; it is just enhanced by it
• You plug the WMP device into your remote and it allows your character to mimic your moves
• When you twist the Wiimote in your hands, the racket on screen does a spin with complete rotation
• Ball placement is determined by your swing

Pretty much everything that has already been said, but this time straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak.

Watch it below.

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EA says that Grand Slam Tennis will include online support for as many as four players, as well as the ability to challenge new opponents online.

That’s according to an interview with Thomas Singleton over on GameSpot.

When asked about Wii MotionPlus, Singleton said it “gives users an even more authentic one-to-one motion that maps to your in-game player.”

“To play Grand Slam Tennis is to truly perform authentic sports motions”, he continued. “The tennis experience also grows with added shot depth and pinpoint ball placement, as the game now recognizes racket roll and end stroke position. Much like myself, one of the first things people do when they pick up a tennis racket is they spin it–that is, after all, what the pros do.

“We’re really just giving birth to pro tennis stars around the globe with this new ability.”

The video posted after the jump shows many of the famous players you can pretend to be.

Game is expected to land June 18.

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EA’s put out the first Wii screens of Grand Slam Tennis, and very lovely they look too.

If you buy it, you’ll be able to pretend you’re playing with Wii MotionPlus, even if it hasn’t been released. There can be little better than that.

After the break.

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Nintendo is still mum on Wii MotionPlus’s release date, but growing rumor is pointing to June.

GoNintendo noticed in the new Nintendo Power Magazine article on Grand Slam Tennis that MotionPlus  is “due out prior” to the game’s release.

Grand Slam is out June 18.

Eurogamer was already under the impression that WMP would have a June launch, but was told by a Nintendo UK spokesperson today that “the release date is still TBC” and the talk was “rumor and speculation”.

Upcoming WMP compatible titles include: Wii Sports Resort, Grand Slam Tennis, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Red Steel 2.

The Nintendo Power website has a scan of Grand Slam Tennis, as well as a bit of information on the game if you zoom in on photo.

Apparently, it’ll be as close as you can get playing tennis without actually being on the court, if what producer Tom Singleton says is true.

“Our main focus for this franchise is putting the racket in the palm of your hand”, he said. “We want to give you the sensation that you are literally playing tennis.”

Hopefully tennis-elbow will not be included in the package.

Game’s out sometime June 16.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

EA Sports is planning on releasing games compatible with Wii MotionPlus regardless of whether the new feature has been launched or not.

Nintendo originally announced that Wii Sports Resort would be released and bundled with the WMP add-on come spring.

Now, MTV Multiplayer has learned that it is now listed instead as a “2009″ release.

EA games supporting Wii MotionPlus are expected to be released on June 16, but luckily, neither Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 or Grand Slam Tennis are dependent on the add-on.

“Tiger and Tennis will be compatible, but not dependent, on WMP. They will ship with the functionality, regardless of when WMP comes to market”, said an EA spokesperson.

Good thing.

More through the link.