RALEIGH, North Carolina — Tennis, anyone? While the top hockey players in the world gather for the 58th NHL All-Star Game at the RBC Center, 2K Sports was talking tennis. NHL 2K11 was playable on Wii at the NHL Fan Fair in downtown Raleigh, but Mike Rhinehart, senior brand manager at 2K Sports, was talking about other sports, as well. Rhinehart said that 2K Sports had enough success with its stereoscopic 3D version of the PlayStation 3 NBA 2K11 game that it’s adding 3D gameplay to Top Spin 4 this year. While MLB 2K11 won’t have stereo 3D this year, Rhinehart said the studio is open to adding that in the future. He also believes the NHL 2K franchise could benefit from stereo 3D.
On the tennis front, 2K Sports has hired Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Andre Agassi for the cover of the new 3D game. This will mark the first time in a decade that Andre Agassi will be featured in a game. Top Spin 4 ships March 15 for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.
“Tennis has been in my life for as long as I can remember,” said Andre Agassi, former No. 1-ranked player in the world, winner of eight Grand Slam singles tournaments and 17 ATP Master Series tournaments. “I hope that with Top Spin 4 players can enjoy the sport as much as I have.”
In development at 2K Czech, Top Spin 4 brings the competitive action of tennis to life like never before with redesigned controls, jaw-dropping player models and enhanced TV-style presentation elements. Each of the title’s top athletes and legendary pros will be equipped with 2K Sports’ Signature Style animations, including player-specific swing styles and behavioral AI, custom celebrations and outfits.
“Top Spin 4 does a phenomenal job capturing the unique authenticity and highly competitive skills of these 25 world-class athletes,” said Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports. “When playing Top Spin 4, we wanted consumers to feel they are playing more than a tennis game, we wanted them to feel like they are in a world title prize fight.”
Top Spin 4 features the largest roster in the franchise to date, including Andre Agassi, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Jim Courier, Rafael Nadal, Boris Becker, Serena Williams, Patrick Rafter, Michael Chang, Dinara Safina, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic, Ivan Lendel, Pete Sampras, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Caroline Wozniacki, Nikolay Davydenko, Gilles Simon, Bernard Tomic, Eugenie Bouchard, Stanislas Wawrinka, Vera Zvonareva, and Jelena Jankovic.
To commemorate this fourth entry in the Top Spin series, 2K Sports is offering an exclusive vintage Andre Agassi playable character for free in North America only when gamers pre-order and reserve their copy of Top Spin 4 at GameStop.
