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Update: BigBen Interactive has now announced a second delay to the Switch version of the game, pushing the release back to 19th June in Europe. The official press release states that this is "to ensure that the game launches with all improvements and fixes needed on day one".


Original Story: With the crazy and colourful Mario Tennis Aces just around the corner, Tennis World Tour looked to be a decent option for those wanting a more 'authentic' experience. The game was set to launch for Switch in May, but has since been delayed until 12th June - just next week. Unfortunately, its launch on other systems - which went ahead as planned - has been something of a disaster.

Speaking to French newspaper Le Monde, founder of BigBen Interactive Alain Falc admitted to several glaring issues surrounding the release. "The departure was chaotic," he explains, noting that the project was "only 20% completed a few weeks before its release". You likely don't need us to tell you that this is pretty much unheard of in the game development world, but it sadly gets even worse.

It turns out that rather than postponing the release to spend more time on development, the company chose to release the game anyway to avoid "losing the benefit of marketing campaigns already committed", as well as making sure it launched during the 2018 French Open for maximum selling potential. The focus from here is to reportedly release an updated, refined edition of the game next year, with a brand new Tennis World Tour already planned for 2020-2021.

Falc remains almost mockingly optimistic about the situation, however, stating that the company "put 500,000 pieces on the market but with many distributors who have no right of return, so we know that will be profitable". Yes, you read that correctly: the low quality of the game (which was described as "the worst tennis game that has ever released on any format to date" in SA Gamer's review) doesn't matter to BigBen Interactive because the shipment of the game has already been secured and can't be returned. Brilliant.

The game is still set to launch for Nintendo Switch next week, on 12th June to be exact, and while we don't know for sure what state the game will be in, we're not exactly left with much confidence.

[source jeuxvideo.com]