Tennis Australia and Melbourne-based sports game developer Big Ant Studios have today confirmed their new tennis game: AO Tennis. AO Tennis will be the first tennis game officially licensed to the Australian Open.
Built in collaboration with Tennis Australia, Big Ant claims AO Tennis will be the first game of its kind to be developed using statistical match play data for each of the dozens of licensed players it will feature. According to the announcement, Big Ant has used data showing which shots the included players have historically opted to use in specific circumstances throughout their matches and has applied that data to their AI versions.
“With previous tennis games, the world #1 would be challenging to beat, because his or her in-game attributes would be set to merely make fewer errors,” explained Big Ant CEO Ross Symons in the announcement. “That worked well at the time, but we’ve taken things to the next level.”
“In AO Tennis Rafael Nadal is the hardest player to beat because in game he plays like his real-life counterpart; he plays a game style befitting the #1 player in the world.”
Like Ashes Cricket, AO Tennis will feature 3D scanned player likenesses and authentic play styles, and it will also feature the extensive customisation options Big Ant traditionally includes in its sports series, like Rugby League Live, Casey Powell Lacrosse, and Don Bradman Cricket/Ashes Cricket. In AO Tennis we’ll be able to create our own players, sponsorship logos, clothing, and even stadiums to play in. The game will also feature an “in-depth career mode”, where players will need to work their way from being ranked 1500th in the world to number one.
AO Tennis will launch on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in Australia and New Zealand on January 16, 2018, just in time for the Australian Open. The game will be released globally in the first half of 2018, but specific dates for other territories are yet to be confirmed.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN's Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.