Hangar 13 on TopSpin 2K25's Triumphant PS5 Return | Push Square

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TopSpin 2K25 is about to be served up on PS5, and after playing the game at a hands-on preview, it’s quietly become one of our most anticipated releases of the year. From top tennis talent to this long-dormant franchise getting the 2K treatment, there’s plenty of reason for us to be excited — but what about those behind every swing, serve and set? We managed to speak with Game Director Remi Ercolani to learn about tech advances, post-launch support, and why now is the perfect time for the series to return.

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Push Square: Why has it taken over 10 years to revisit the Top Spin franchise, and why do you believe now is the right time to continue the franchise?

Remi Ercolani: Although we never intended for there to be such a long gap, I can say with great confidence that right now is the perfect time for the resurgence of the franchise. We’re seeing more popularity and general pop culture relevance with tennis with a promising group of young stars, a popular Netflix series and upcoming film, and huge support from celebrity fans. It’s safe to say that we’re happy to be part of it.

Can you talk about how the gameplay has evolved and improved in Top Spin 2K25? Previous entries stood apart from arcade series like Virtua Tennis due to the way the shot mechanic worked. Can you explain how the swing is replicated here?

Ercolani: Staying true to the gameplay that players loved in TopSpin 4 while making the improvements we felt the game needed is always a challenge, but we’re very excited to get feedback on the changes we’ve made and to continue to make the game evolve over time.

We have added a new Timing Meter to help players understand when to release the shot button to get good or perfect timings and we also rebuilt the serve mechanic from the ground up. This makes it closer to what it feels like to serve in real tennis with that notion of risk vs reward.

We’ve also implemented a series of changes to make rallies shorter, by