Interview: Sega Superstars Tennis

Sumo Digital casts a Sega dream with Kikizo. Steve Lycett on working with Sega Japan, Sega fanboys and OutRun3.

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So what exactly was this OutRun3 related-slip-up we mentioned in today's interview with Sumo Digital? The following is adapted from an article we were going to publish last month but opted not to due to lack of information. The following is SPECULATION ONLY and can't be confirmed at present, so we are adding it here for context only as a footnote to the Sumo interview.

OutRun 3 on the Way?

At a recent Sega event, a slip of the tongue revealed the possible arrival of a brand new entry in the beloved OutRun driving series from Sega.

The event, set up to show off the final version of the fantastic Sega Superstars Tennis (along with the Wii releases of Sega Bass Fishing, House of the Dead 2 and 3, and Samba De Amigo), started with a demonstration by developers from UK-based Sumo Digital, which is handling development of the Sega IP-rich tennis game.

During the demo, a Sumo Digital representative uttered the alarming words "OutRun 3" in referencing their previous work with Sega, before quickly correcting himself to OutRun 2, which Sumo developed on console for Sega. Stay with us here...

We later hassled the same Sumo representative about it, but he claimed the slip up was a "genuine mistake" and that was "all he could say". All he could say meaning 'simple as that'? Or all he could say, because there's more to it and he'd be in trouble if he explained what? We weren't letting this one go!

We collared a Sega Europe producer on the issue, and although the existence of the game could not be confirmed, his guarded language and refusal to deny it seemed telling. He referred to the OutRun series as being "back to AM2" (from Sumo, presumably) and that it wasn't his place to comment on what the arcade division is up to.

We decided that it would have been pretty hard for the Sumo man to accidentally blurt out "OutRun 3" were it not a name he's been using a lot lately and something that was at the front of his mind.

Since the event we have resisted the urge to publish an article based on this speculation alone, and we've done a spot of further probing. The probing suggested that OutRun 3 is coming to arcades on an upgraded version of the Lindbergh arcade board used in the original game. Further to this (and this is where the Sumo slip-up would make perfect sense), it was suggested to us that game is being readied for a quick appearance on consoles, something the developer would naturally be assigned to handle, given its spectacular work on Sega's previous home console games.

While our efforts to get confirmation on this are unsatisfactory for any serious report, we wouldn't be able to live with ourselves if it gets announced and we hadn't mentioned something about it. Our current best guess therefore is that this is merely a project under discussion at Sega.

A new OutRun sequel would make sense: the series has been an ongoing hit in arcades, with several upgrades and mini-sequels since OutRun2 debuted in 2003, each housed in a cabinet more magnificent than the last. Things like that don't keep getting made by Sega these days unless they are making money. It also seems like a smart move to get an up-to-date, HD follow-up for OutRun to consoles, given the ongoing popularity of console racing titles.

We can't stress enough here (and we learned this one the hard way) that nothing is ever announced until it's announced, and sometimes companies - and their plans - change rapidly and dramatically. After a certain other AM2 franchise about sailors was quietly shelved last year, rendering a report we did on its development status two years prior redundant, we pledged never to run stories like that unless one of two conditions are met: (a) that we can openly name the source of the information; or (b) that we think an actual announcement is likely and fairly imminent (as opposed to a lengthy, controversial development process being paused and therefore an actual release being uncertain). Currently we don't know if these conditions are met concerning OutRun3, so this is just gossip right now.

Just for the the sake of completion, we asked our regular "above the line" Sega PR rep for a comment on this unfinished article, and he said he knew nothing about OutRun3.

It's worth remembering that denial of a project's existence is often meaningless. Just one month before the announcement of NiGHTS for the Wii, Sonic Team producer Yojiro Ogawa outright lied and said there were "no plans" for NiGHTS whatsoever! (And we knew for a fact it was in development when we asked him the question).

So, please treat this as a heads-up and nothing more.

For evidence of why the OutRun series is ace, look no further than our killer 60fps videos here and here. Stay tuned for our review of Sega Superstars Tennis.

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