EA Sports serves up tennis franchise

Vancouver studio developing MotionPlus-compatible sports game to debut on Wii next year; other platform versions to follow.

While Electronic Arts is known for a robust lineup of sports games spanning the gamut from pro football to rugby, the publisher hasn't dabbled in the world of tennis since the days of the Sega Genesis. That will change next year, as EA today announced at the Leipzig Games Convention that its Vancouver-based EA Canada studio is working on a new tennis franchise for release next year.

The still-unnamed series will debut on the Wii, where it will support Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus attachment in order to improve the motion-sensing hardware's accuracy. Versions of the game for other platforms will trail the Wii edition's launch.

In keeping with EA history, the publisher has also obtained a bit of exclusivity for the game. The EA Sports-branded tennis game will be the only video game to feature the All England Lawn Tennis Club, site of the Wimbledon Championships. The game will also include a selection of past and present tennis greats for players to play as or against.

16 Comments

  • nehe

    Posted Jan 30, 2009 11:21 am PT

    Hope these two versions are extremely different I'm expecting big things from EA for the xbox360 Version and Ps3 Hope it beats both Topspin3 and VT3... if there aren't any real pros forget it lol

  • dark_being

    Posted Aug 22, 2008 3:25 am PT

    Sports games are not for me. When I feel like playing a sport, I go outside

  • BraveArc

    Posted Aug 21, 2008 8:35 am PT

    Top spin has 3 grand slams. I guess more people would rather get this

  • ctg867

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 11:48 pm PT

    Well given the fact that, per what Game Informer has said, NO DEVELOPER outside of Nintendo new ANYTHING about the Wii Motion Plus OR Wii Speak, it's not surprising that only the first announcement relating to just one of these devices is made weeks after E3 is over and the hardware is announced. And this is the second biggest third party in gaming.

    Big mistake Nintendo. Don't burn the third parties. No matter how well you sell, don't even burn the third parties. They're not too crazy about that.

  • tawagivercetti

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 7:50 pm PT

    Maybe focus on making a great FIFA game first.

  • xcollector

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 2:02 pm PT

    Wow! EA is at it again by slowly buying up the Tennis franchise. No sport is safe anymore regardless of how unpopular it may be.

  • Androvinus

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 1:56 pm PT

    EA finally does tennis, I hope its good

  • Proman84

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 1:53 pm PT

    About time. Hope this one's good and innovative.

  • PMG_HART

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 1:29 pm PT

    HEY LOOK GUYS ITS AN EA SPORTS TENNIS GAME..fast forward 364 days AND ANOTHER fast forward 364 days AND ANOTHER...get the trend? EA puts out a game each year but it turns out to be all flash and all broken. Just ask anyone that has Madden or Head Coach 09. Oh wait... I have them (stupid me)

  • crazymaghie123

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 1:27 pm PT

    Yeah you're right, because they buy all the rights so there is no competition

  • eric1044

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 1:13 pm PT

    EA MAKES THE BEST SPORTS GAMES. not even an argument.

  • crazymaghie123

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 12:58 pm PT

    Crap, so thats why top spin 3 didn't have wimbledon...based on the nature of the atp and its world wide influence I doubt we would see any exclusive tennis games but who knows it Evil Empire..

  • gnbfd

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 12:09 pm PT

    Cool. WiiMotion Plus tennis...
    I can see it now...

  • VolcanoMan001

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 12:03 pm PT

    Great, here we go. It won't be long until they are the ONLY tennis game maker as well.

  • DarqFlare

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 10:49 am PT

    If only EA's exclusivity contracts required that they put out great games each year... Another one bites the dust, 'ey?

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