Nearly two years after the rumor shared by Jason Schreier, developer Hangar 13 (Mafia III, Mafia Definitive Edition) is almost ready to release Top Spin 2K25, the first new entry in the beloved tennis franchise since 2011’s Top Spin 4.
With only three months between the official announcement and the launch date (slated for April 26), there’s a lot that fans are still eager to know about the game. To remedy that, we sent a list of questions to Hangar 13. Below, you can find the replies penned by Top Spin 2K25 Game Director Remi Ercolani.
As a reminder, the game will be released on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X, featuring full cross-play between all platforms.
How long has Top Spin 2K25 been in development?
TopSpin 2K25 has been in development for around two and a half years.
How many custom players can we create? Will it be possible to share custom players with the community?
In TopSpin 2K25, it’s possible to have up to 6 different MyPLAYERS at a time. That allows players to create both male and female MyPLAYERs and to experiment with various play styles, attributes, and skills. The game does not support the ability to share custom players with the community.
How deep is the MyCareer mode? Can you put other created players into it as AI players?
MyCAREER presents players with the opportunity to create their own custom MyPLAYER and to live their journey as an unknown pro player entering the Tour and trying to make a name for themselves through smaller tournaments, and eventually climb in the rankings and unlock access to more prestigious tournaments until they can take on the World’s best players in the most prestigious venues and fight for the World #1 spot. Incorporating a wide variety of unique hairstyles, skin tones, body types, prosthetics, apparel, animations, and play style options, MyPLAYER offers players the opportunity to truly customize their appearance and experience.
In addition to customizing their MyPLAYER and demonstrating the skills they’ve developed, MyCAREER also lets you handle some aspects of a pro player’s career such as what events to play or skip, traveling, managing fatigue, and building a support team. The game does not support adding MyPLAYERs as AI opponents in MyCAREER.
How important is the surface court going to be relative to the player’s stats? Can we expect certain playstyles to suffer significantly on certain surfaces (e.g., serve and volley on clay)?
Different surfaces do not affect player stats directly, but when playing on a surface like clay, players get access to new sliding animations that allow them to return balls they may not have been able to return on other surfaces. That means rallies are likely to be longer on that surface, which in turn makes attributes like Stamina or Speed even more critical on this surface than on others.
You mentioned in the latest video that the game is attempting to reduce the length of rallies to make it more realistic. Does that mean a fairly realistic chance of sending the ball in the net or out of bounds?
Yes, players should see more winners but also more errors (ball in the net or out of bounds) in TopSpin 2K25. The probability for a shot to go out is determined by a variety of factors, such as the player’s forehand or backhand attribute, how difficult the incoming ball is to return, their current level of energy, and more. John McEnroe explains it all in great detail in one of the Advanced lessons of the TopSpin Academy.
Beyond this and the new serve system, what other gameplay improvements will Top Spin 4 veterans notice?
Other updates and improvements include the new Timing Meter, which helps players understand how timing works, new signature animations (the list will grow every season), many new venues, brands, and pros. Another change we made early on in the project is to improve overall player responsiveness to guarantee that users feel in control when they should. The way the players lose and regain energy during matches has also been re-tuned. The addition of Fittings in MyPLAYER and their ability to unlock a third Skill (Top Spin 4 only allowed players to have 2 Skills) is also new to TopSpin 2K25.
Fans have been underwhelmed by the official roster of playable pros, as many big players like Djokovic, Nadal, Sinner, etc. are missing. Is it a licensing issue? Can we expect some of them to be added post-launch and if so, how much they’ll cost?
We aimed to ensure the best mix of legends, current stars, and heroes of the future were represented in our roster. There will be more exciting pros added in our post-launch content. More info will be shared soon.
The pro stats that have been revealed so far have also been criticized. Are you going to adjust them ahead of launch?
We are always listening to community feedback. Player ratings are determined by watching a lot of matches of our pro players, understanding how each of their different attributes will impact gameplay, and trying to differentiate players as much as reasonably possible. We know it’s impossible to satisfy everyone with these attributes, but we do have the ability to tune and update them at any point, so we’re going to continue to monitor the feedback and potentially make changes both before and after launch if needed.
Will there be multiple courts from the big tournaments in Top Spin 2K25?
We have 15 licensed tournaments and 48 courts overall, including all four Grand Slam tournaments (the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia; Roland-Garros in Paris, France; The Championships at Wimbledon in London, England; and the US Open in New York, USA), all 9 ATP Masters 1000, and more. The game features the main court/stadium for each of these tournaments.
Can you clarify what will be included in the Centre Court Pass and Premium Centre Court Pass?
Additional information on the content and release plan for the Centre Court Passes and Premium Centre Court Passes will be revealed soon.
Can you talk about the online modes available to players? Is there any kind of in-game tournament system, or will players have to rely on tools outside the game?
TopSpin 2K25 will feature competitive (ranked) and friendly (non-ranked) online game modes at launch, including the 2K Tour and World Tour online modes.
In World Tour, players take their custom MyPLAYER online to challenge other MyPLAYERs in tournaments that refresh every week. By winning matches and going deep in the tournaments, players earn Tournament Points, climb the global leaderboard, and claim glory.
In 2K Tour, players select one of the licensed pros and go online to challenge another player and their selected pro. Each day, certain featured pros and objectives offer players the opportunity to earn points and climb the 2K Tour leaderboard. Online Exhibition will allow you to select any player and take on an opponent of the same skill level in a quick friendly match.
Will doubles be available online with their own rankings?
TopSpin 2K25 won’t support online doubles at launch, but we’re hoping to offer more options in the future. Each mode will have its own specificities and unique features to keep players motivated to return and play daily, and all ranked modes will have leaderboards for fans to keep an eye on the competition.
What engine are you using?
TopSpin 2K25 runs on a proprietary Hangar 13 engine.
On consoles, are you targeting 60 FPS by default, or are there going to be multiple graphics modes?
TopSpin 2K25 runs at 60 FPS in single and multiplayer on all platforms during gameplay. This is an important part of the TopSpin feel and experience, so it was critical for us to hit this target on all platforms.
Are you going to support the PS5 DualSense controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers? If so, will this be available on PC too when using the controller?
We do support the PS5 Dual Sense Controller’s haptic feedback. We will not be supporting those features on PC for launch.
Do you see the game as an annual product, or can players expect multiple years of support?
Right now we are so excited to focus on TopSpin 2K25 and bring the best tennis sim experience to players on April 26. We’ll see what the future holds beyond that.
Some sports games update pro stats every once in a while to reflect their latest performances. Is something like this in Top Spin 2K25?
We do have the ability to update our pro players’ attributes at any time after launch. We will consider when and if to update them based on a variety of factors.
When creating a player, can they eventually reach similar stats as top-tier players like Alcaraz or Medvedev? How many hours of gameplay does it take?
This is a difficult question to answer as it depends on a variety of things, including the AI difficulty level, the selected match formats, what game modes you play, and whether you win or lose the matches you play. On average, it’s probably safe to assume it will take around 20 hours to maximize a MyPLAYER and make them as good as a top-tier pro player, but remember that may vary from player to player based on the parameters listed above.
Thank you for your time.