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Virtua Tennis 4 getting £1m ad campaign

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SEGA Europe continues to drop big cash on marketing their titles, this time it’s Virtua Tennis 4. The series will get online, print and TV ads during its European release April 29th. It will also be sponsored during Wimbledon. Those TV ads will start playing on April 25th on Channel 4, E4, Sky Sports, Sky, ITV2, and ITV4.

“With over a million pounds invested in marketing, this is our biggest spend on a Virtua Tennis title to date. Activity will create awareness at release, with a second execution to capitalize on grand slam fever during Wimbledon. The No.1 tennis series is releasing on what is a pretty significant date. For many, that will be the Royal Wedding, but for gamers it signifies the start of the gaming tennis season, and with the bank holiday a few extra hours of play. Virtua Tennis 4 is the only tennis game to include motion control functionality across all platforms.” –  Anna Downing (SEGA’s senior product manager)

The article keeps on saying it’s the series’ 10th anniversary, but that is incorrect since the original was released on arcades in 1999 and the Dreamcast port came in 2000. Unless I’m missing something? So now that SEGA Europe stepped up, what will SEGA America do?

[Source: MCVUK]

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Virtua Tennis 4 World Tour Trailer

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Direct from SEGA comes the latest trailer for the awesome Virtua Tennis 4. This has got to be my favorite trailer, as it shows off my favorite mode: world tour. It looks like the game will follow a board game sort of layout, where you are given a certain number of spaces to move. Some spaces feature autograph signings, while others feature tournaments, mini-games and (according to interviews) random muggings!

Also featured is the character creation mode, which looks pretty deep. You can squash, stretch and tweak the player’s face to resemble your own. I just know I’m going to spend a good hour making the perfect doppelganger. Then I’ll stick myself in tie dyed rainbow shorts, and take on the world.

Want to demo the game before release? PS3 owners are in luck! Details after the break.

Continue Reading ➜

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Virtua Tennis 4 on Playstation 3 gets exclusive content

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SEGA has just confirmed that the Playstation 3 version of Virtua Tennis 4 is getting exclusive playable characters. These include Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pat Rafter. As well as two minigames. The first one is Pin Crusher which is made for regular controllers in mind and the other is Net Blitz which is Move exclusive.

There is also a minigame being made for PlayStation Home Central Plaza that will launch with the start of the French Open. To check out the message SEGA sent out, hit the jump.

Continue Reading ➜

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Virtua Tennis 4 release date announced for North America! Also, cover art.

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UPDATE: Europe can expect the game a week early, with the European release date announced as being April 29th, 2011.

Restring your racquets, Virtua Tennis 4 has a release date! SEGA has announced that Virtua Tennis 4 will be hitting the Wii, PS3 and 360 on May 10, 2011 in North America! Also, SEGA has released the cover art. Want to see the PS3 and Wii cover, as well as a press release?

Continue Reading ➜

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Virtua Tennis 4 being developed by orginal team due to fan feedback

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The guys over at Eurogamer have grabbed a pretty good interview with Mie Kumagai, producer for Virtua Tennis 4. One of the important questions asked was why AM3 took the franchise back to Japan, when Virtua Tennis 2009 was done by Sumo Digital.

“The reason why it was taken back to Japan with the original studio was looking at Virtua Tennis 3 and 2009 and listening to fan reaction and user feedback, we felt for 4 there needed to be a lot of major changes in the game.

With that in mind, if you’re going to add a lot of new elements, if you’re going to change something quite a lot, to some respect you have to scrap what’s already there. We felt it was a task best done by the original team who understood the game the most, who understood the main concepts and goals of the game the most, and had the most experience. We could constructively scrap parts where we would need to update and think about what could be changed, what could be updated.

At the end of 2009, we felt almost every element in the game was exhausted. So we needed to bring a lot of new things on board. That’s why it was taken back to the original team in Japan.”– Mie Kumagai, Virtua Tennis 4 producer

I love Sumo Digital, but I’m very excited that the original team is back and trying to deliver a fresh game in the series. There is just so much you can do with tennis, I guess we will see the changes when the game launches in the spring.

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House of the Dead: Overkill sequel in the works?

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According to Nintendo Life, who has direct sources inside SEGA, the game is codenamed: “House of the Dead: Overkill 2”. They also stated that this one is rumored to be in the works for both Wii and (most likely) Playstation Move.

What about that release date? According to Nintendo Life, it should come out in mid-2011. Is it possible? Yes, the last game did end with a set up for another game.

[Via: SEGANeptune]

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Virtua Tennis 4 played right

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Thank Buddha someone’s got their eye on the ball, right? (pun)

Of all the journalists paid to play and write about videogames the best video of Virtua Tennis 4 actually being played by competent gamers comes from the guys over at SegaOnline.nl.

Good game guys!

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SEGABITS heading to E3, courtesy of The Sonic Stadium!

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Alright, so some of you may be wondering why I suddenly started doing updates for SEGAbits. Is it because they are the awesomenest SEGA fan site in the world? Why of course! But beyond that, it’s because I was recently offered the chance to go to E3 on for the awesomenest Sonic website in the world, The Sonic Stadium! Being more of a SEGA fan then just a Sonic fan, I thought it would be a waste to go to the show without providing my SEGA chums with some coverage from the floor coverage!

So, what can we expect from this? Well, hands on previews, obviously (Vanquish and any surprise games being at the top of my list, currently). You can expect off screen videos and photos as well, as well as impressions for the 3DS, Move, and Natal (as well as a comparison between the latter too). Finally, we’re also looking to get some interviews with Platinum Games and High Voltage software, if everything goes well.

Of course, for all Sonic related coverage, you’ll need to head over to Sonic Stadium. Since I am going to E3 for both websites, the two sites will providing joint coverage of everything SEGA related at the show. We’ll be sure to let you know whenever something new is posted over at TSS!

Finally, I would like to send out a HUGE thanks to Kellie, Aaron, and all the other awesome people over at Sega of America for making this possible. It is this sort of dedication to the fan community that makes SEGA such a special company, and one of the many reasons why I consider them one of the best companies in the history of gaming. We at SEGAbits really appreciate this chance.

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