Where Are the Tennis Games?

[Monsieur Aymeric]

Quote: Originally Posted by richgrisham

You're leaving out the most important word: Licensing The costs to license any real players, tournaments, and stadiums/courts (like Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, for example) are extraordinarily high. You'd have to spend millions of dollars with all of those entities before you even begin building the game, and that's why we don't see - and never will see - another big-time tennis game again. No one would buy an unlicensed tennis game, and no one can afford the costs for the license when you combine the costs of development to create something new on the new PS4/Xbox One console generation. Heck, the last licensed tennis game was Grand Slam by EA, which had all the licensed big-time tournaments and a small, but powerful, group of real players. It sold terribly, and will never be heard from again. So they're gone, and they're never coming back. Which is a shame, but the sport and the industry have done this to themselves.

How come there never was an ATP licensed game just like say the PGA ? Wouldn't it reduce the cost of licensing instead of negotiating individually with each top player ?

[richgrisham]

Quote: Originally Posted by rangerrick012

Gst sold badly because it was a bad game. Top Spin from what I recall sold decently globally and still has a community that plays it online to this day. The best route would be an independent developer allowing user generated courts and content if licencing fees are too much of an issue, ala The Golf Club. Every argument you use for tennis can be used for golf tenfold, yet TGC has a loyal following because it's a GOOD GAME. Bottom line is if there was a developer willing to make a great tennis game for real tennis fans and not just a money grab for casuals, it would sell and have a following.

I love The Golf Club and agree that it's a viable model - however, the developer had a HUGE advantage there - they already had a lot of the tools to create golf courses and the mechanics of golf itself because of years of doing outsourcing work for EA's "lesser" versions of Tiger Woods (i.e. porting a version to the Wii so EA's main dev time is dedicated to Xbox 360/PS3 version).

Plus, the TGC dev team self-published, did early access on Steam, and went very wide. And while TGC appears to have been successful, I don't think it's been a massive runaway success in terms of revenue. I sure hope it's been profitable, because I'd love another update or new version in the future.

Anyone starting today with tennis basically has to start from scratch. That's such a huge risk in an unproven market that I don't see anyone doing it.

But I hope I am wrong!

[thehip41]

Tennis Elbow on Steam. Get the Sams MegaMod.

Its the best tennis game ever.

[bxphenom7]

Man, I miss Virtua Tennis. A tennis game is long overdue. I never tried Top Spin but I'd like to see 2k make another effort at a tennis game.

[StubbyStan]

Quote: Originally Posted by richgrisham

You're leaving out the most important word: Licensing The costs to license any real players, tournaments, and stadiums/courts (like Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, for example) are extraordinarily high. You'd have to spend millions of dollars with all of those entities before you even begin building the game, and that's why we don't see - and never will see - another big-time tennis game again. No one would buy an unlicensed tennis game, and no one can afford the costs for the license when you combine the costs of development to create something new on the new PS4/Xbox One console generation. Heck, the last licensed tennis game was Grand Slam by EA, which had all the licensed big-time tournaments and a small, but powerful, group of real players. It sold terribly, and will never be heard from again. So they're gone, and they're never coming back. Which is a shame, but the sport and the industry have done this to themselves.

I did so intentionally. Perhaps it's naivety on my part but part of the belief is that the developer starts small, with a marquee star or license. If they achieve some success, then branch out to getting the ATP, the WTA, or Grand Slam license.

It would be great to use The Golf Club's UGC model but the game doesn't really lend itself to doing that in a very real way. Outside of choosing one of three different styles of courts the only thing other thing to create is a the stadium which I think can get deep into the weeds.

Thanks for reading, commenting, and challenging the piece! I'm so happy that it's sparking conversation & renewed vigor in a sport that more than deserves the interest!

[bmwninja]

who should make it

[StubbyStan]

Quote: Originally Posted by richgrisham

I love The Golf Club and agree that it's a viable model - however, the developer had a HUGE advantage there - they already had a lot of the tools to create golf courses and the mechanics of golf itself because of years of doing outsourcing work for EA's "lesser" versions of Tiger Woods (i.e. porting a version to the Wii so EA's main dev time is dedicated to Xbox 360/PS3 version). Plus, the TGC dev team self-published, did early access on Steam, and went very wide. And while TGC appears to have been successful, I don't think it's been a massive runaway success in terms of revenue. I sure hope it's been profitable, because I'd love another update or new version in the future. Anyone starting today with tennis basically has to start from scratch. That's such a huge risk in an unproven market that I don't see anyone doing it. But I hope I am wrong!

What about a Rockstar game utilizing RAGE? They've already made the game. It's pretty okay in GTA 5 and a little bit more time in the oven could turn those systems into something that it fully realized.

Maybe a tennis game is a little too low profile for the Rockstar folks but people would have said the same thing before Table Tennis debuted.

[StubbyStan]

Quote: Originally Posted by bmwninja

who should make it

Rockstar...they're already 75% of the way there in GTA V.