E3 06: Sega to serve up next-gen Virtua Tennis

Sega has promised a steady stream of product announcements and details on The Road to E3, the first of which arrived today. The publisher has announced that its AM2 Studios division is working on Virtua Tennis 3 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

This will be the first installment of Virtua Tennis handled by AM2; previous incarnations in the series were developed by Hitmaker (makers of the Crazy Taxi and Virtual On games). However, AM2 is no stranger to the Virtua titles, having created the first entries in the series, including Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, and Virtua Cop.

For Virtua Tennis 3, Sega is promising the same easy-to-learn gameplay that has become a trademark of the series, as well as improvements to the graphics, artificial intelligence, and the create-a-player system. The career mode and assortment of Virtua Tennis minigames will also be returning.

Virtua Tennis 3 is set for a spring 2007 release. Expect more details to be released at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, May 10 to 12 in Los Angeles.