Ah, cross-promotion: only the true geniuses in the field of marketing can pull it off. Or something. I don’t know, I’ve never studied or worked in the industry. But I do know videogames, and I also know that having them at an event — especially when the game won’t be out at retail for another two months or so — is guaranteed to bring out some fans.

2K Sports did just this on Wednesday at the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. (I wonder if Niero and Colette went…) They brought out the Wii version of Top Spin 3 and showed it off for the first time in spectacular fashion. The video from the event includes tennis stars like Maria Sharapova, James Blake, Gaël Monfils, and Svetlana Kuznetsova duking it out with Wiimotes instead of real tennis rackets.

Strangely, the video features no gameplay footage from the Wii version (the footage that it does have looks way too good to have come from the Wii version, i.e., it was probably taken from the PS3 or 360 versions). I guess they’re not ready to bring it to the masses quite yet.

Still, the three-minute video incorporates some interviews with Francois Giuntini, the creative director at PAM Development (the developer of the game), as well as Anthony DeLuca, a producer from 2K. They discuss the feature set of the game (naturally, it includes “family-friendly” mini-games), and the improvements it makes over Top Spin 2. Check out the video after the jump, along with the press release and three photos from the premiere.

Top Spin 3 will be out for the PS3, 360, Wii, and DS on May 20th. Head on over to www.topspin3thegame.com for more information.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 11:56 am and is filed under Wii News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.