2011 – An industry’s hopes


MVCUK have quizzed a number of top industry people based in the UK regarding what they are most looking forward too in 2011, on that list is everyone’s favourite western Sega CEO in god knows how long Mike Hayes and Sports Interactive head honcho Miles Jacobson. Let’s see what they are looking forward to in 2011.

Miles Jacobson – Studio Director, Sports Interactive
“Having been lucky to try out a beta version, I’m most looking forward to the new Virtua Tennis release, with a Move and a 3D TV. I’m really looking forward to March’s Nordoff Robbins Football Extravaganza dinner which is sponsored by Tesco – it’s always a great night and raised over £350k last year.

Mike Hayes – CEO, Sega Europe and Sega America
“I want 2011 to be a great year for a little blue hedgehog – as Sonic is 20 years old in June.”

If Miles is looking forward to Virtua Tennis 4, which is being developed in-house at Sega Japan for the first time since PowerSmash 3 (Arcade) then I think that’s a good sign!

As for Mike Hayes; well shit man, so do we… So do we!

You can read the others HERE.

Virtua Tennis 4 Announced!

Today Sega have announced Virtua Tennis 4, the next game in the hit Virtua Tennis series, but this time with a difference!

Virtua Tennis 4 will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and will have both Move controls and be 3D enabled, Anna Kournikova’s arse will seem so close to your face you could almost taste it.

[Edit] It appears that this game will be developed in Japan by the original Virtua Tennis team and not by Sumo Digital, pretty big news! Maybe that will free up Sumo for some more Sega All-Stars action. [/Edit]

Hit the jump for the press release!

Mike Hayes on Sega Wests OnLive plans

In an interview published today over at GamesIndustry.biz, Mike Hayes was questioned about On Live and how it would fit into Sega’s strategy.

According to Hayes, Sega West currently have three titles in the works for OnLive although all are ports of existing games. Alpha Protocol, Sega & Sonic All-Star Racing and an unspecified Virtua Tennis title were the games mentioned.

“We’ve got three titles with OnLive – Virtua Tennis, Alpha Protocol and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. Those would be managed out of the USA as part of the digital business. If we were starting from scratch we’d run it all out of the US but the heritage of electronics sales just happens to be in Europe, and it doesn’t make sense to move it across.”

I think this is a good way to start… I honestly don’t see this technology going anywhere fast and Sega would be silly to make games specifically for OnLive. Personally I was expecting Aliens vs. Predator and Napoleon: Total War to be among the first on the service, they seem like games that could benefit from OnLive more so than something like Sega All-Star Racing.

For anyone that isn’t familiar with OnLive it is a device that essentially lets you stream games from another computer to your own so there is no need for you to have a top of the line PC and you can still play games with high end graphics… Although many are skeptical about the delay in button commands when streaming a game, you also need a constant internet connection.

You can read the entire article HERE.
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The Last Boss: Tennis Royalty

Ah tennis, a gentlemanly game of skill. It’s all about two men facing off against each other, nothing but racquets and hairy balls between them.  (I’ll get the bad puns out of the way early, I promise). Unless we are talking Sega’s Virtua Tennis series, in which case, prepare for huge sunflower racquets, giant alligators, wheelie bins from outer space invading our tennis courts, and the brave men who need to stop them. You know I’m not making this stuff up, I’m not that creative.

And of course, we have the baddest dudes to ever set foot on a tennis court. Of course I’m talking about Virtua Tennis’ Royalty the craziest, toughest tennis players to ever walk the earth (sorry John McEnroe, better luck next time).

Hit the Jump to read the full story of the Royal Family of Tennis!