Rockstar Games serves up Table Tennis

Midnight Club development studio gets back to its gaming roots with Ping-Pong sim; publisher names game's exact date and price.

In 1972, Nolan Bushnell used cutting-edge technology to create a Ping-Pong simulation. In 2006, Rockstar Games will do the same, as the company today announced that its next title, its first on the Xbox 360, will also be a Ping-Pong simulation.

Rockstar founder and executive producer Sam Houser said the goal with Table Tennis was to make a simple, addictive game that would take advantage of next-gen hardware.

"We wanted to use the power of the new hardware and the resolution of new televisions to give the game an immediacy, an intensity, and a sense of physicality and reality, resulting in a purer, more visceral experience that simply was not possible previously," Houser said in a statement. "It is a distillation of game design philosophy, focusing on removing the traditional areas of compromise inherent in managing size and scope and concentrating the hardware's entire power on one activity, with the aim of doing that better than it's ever been done before."

Developed by Rockstar San Diego (the studio behind the Midnight Club street racing series and the Western shooter Red Dead Revolver), Table Tennis is set to ship to North American retailers for the Xbox 360 on May 22. Bucking the $59.99 pricing trend for 360 games, copies of Table Tennis will go for $39.99.

63 Comments

  • rsox07

    Posted Jun 2, 2008 6:47 pm PT

    Way to make the table into tennis!!!!!!

  • blueme123

    Posted Jan 4, 2007 3:41 pm PT

    XD

  • CausticBox

    Posted Dec 22, 2006 4:32 am PT

    Considering the score this game got, yes many of these comments seem very funny.

  • bduddy_

    Posted Dec 19, 2006 3:37 pm PT

    Hahahaha, these comments are hilarious...

  • Tarjanian

    Posted Mar 12, 2006 8:40 am PT

    Its sad to see a good game developer bow to the public pressure and release such an obviously Safe, Politcally Correct game that will not sell for ****

    Why can't they release titles that there known for and step up the quality control to ensure hot coffee type code is caught before production?

    Table tennis (aka Pong 360) deserves to stay in the Acrade section.

  • vejkis

    Posted Mar 8, 2006 8:01 am PT

    Revolution game anyone? *rolling eyes*

  • ferrarimanf355

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 10:41 am PT

    Everybody's bashing the game now, but when the reviews come in, I expect most of you to be buying it. I have faith that this game will turn out just fine.

  • Fire_Fly

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 8:39 am PT

    What about BULLY?

  • dru26

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 6:27 am PT

    Thanks Hillary.

  • Autolycus

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 6:13 am PT

    this is freaken sweet. The only people that wouldnt like this game are the poeple that dont have skills to hit a little ball across the table(aka ping pong). its a lot more challeging then it looks...all you judge before experiencers(aka americans)

  • ufopuller

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 6:06 am PT

    OMG the rebirth of PONG

  • Tsunamii_basic

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 5:39 am PT

    If this is what is in the pipeline then stick a fork in them..

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 5:00 am PT

    i'm predicting a new hot coffee mod..... (come on.......rockstar? and table tennis?)

  • rabidgrizzly

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 3:35 am PT

    The founder guy sounds like the architect from the matrix, too many big words that dont describe anything. Hes pretty much saying that it will look good,play nicely and be fun. see was that so hard.

  • pedjan

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 3:05 am PT

    I think this game will be very coooooool This is something realy new (not so fresh, but new) in the game industry. Matrix-ping-pong! yeah!

  • KiLLer_ba

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 1:29 am PT

    Can you kill your opponents with your Pong.....Balls

  • boolow407

    Posted Mar 7, 2006 12:55 am PT

    From GTA to pong....Im curious to see. Maybe R* is trying to be good and lay low for a while. Cant say I blame them.

  • Kfoss

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 5:35 pm PT

    table tennis?...who the hell is going to spend 50 to 60 bucks for X360 table tennis!!!! ..are..they NUTS!...do they want to loose more money...i guess so!!!..hey guys join me on line for an exciting game of...table tennis.....I hate to tell rockstar....but unless its like 10 bucks...people are not going to buy it...the days of pong are LONG DEAD....it would be better to invest there time making this for a hand held and to spend the rest of there money developing a good original game for the X360....
    yea people spend $500 on consoles to experience the jaw dropping fun of TABLE TENNIS!!!!!......there stupidity is beyond astronomical...

  • Tranceplant

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 5:27 pm PT

    Just Ping-Pong? Yeah right.. i'm sure you'll be able to beat up your opponent with the racket and hang him with the net. And then brake both sides of the table in 2. Yeah, that's gonna be it.

  • davahsa

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 4:52 pm PT

    Will there be hookers and chainsaws?

  • TJSpyke

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 3:42 pm PT

    $40 for a table tennis game? It would a rip-off at $10.

  • animationj

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 2:55 pm PT

    They should make this a Live Arcade Game, eh? Well, this should be interesting.

  • hundredfirst

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 2:48 pm PT

    sad

  • jonnyjd

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 2:09 pm PT

    Wow!!! I can't wait for this! This has got to be...wait...Ping-Pong? I thought this was Tic-Tac-Toe: 2006. I'm outta here...

  • AA7

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 1:53 pm PT

    Hopefully the government will lay off Rstar on this one, unless its nude table tennis....

  • brerrabbit23

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 1:26 pm PT


    only question... can we still kill hookers?

  • erikers

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 1:23 pm PT

    Get the crap out of your eyes, it's $40. Try reading the article

  • jks22112

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:54 pm PT

    Ping Pong for $60? Sorry, I'll just buy the real thing.

  • dwmorrow

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:52 pm PT

    Is it April Fool's already? Or do you get to shoot and rob the other player if you win a match?

  • thefjk

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:51 pm PT

    Yeah they cant be sued for something like this!

  • VFA-102

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:49 pm PT

    They joking right?

  • DeathStar17

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:46 pm PT

    What will it be rated?

  • Paul_TheGreat

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:40 pm PT

    Are you kidding me.LOL

  • GastaS

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:29 pm PT

    ping pong is a very fast games, even in real live you cant see the ball. how we going to play this on consoles? lets wait and see. japonese players will love this game for sure!

  • ahadj

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:20 pm PT

    i also think this will be ported to revulotion to take advantage of the controller.i think nintendo even showed a basic table tennis type game when they first their showed their controller.Lets hope it is good enough to warrent a port.

  • ufopuller

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:15 pm PT

    Sooner the better

  • paradyme777

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:13 pm PT

    I'm still sorta upset about this, but oh well...maybe it'll get stupid Senators *cough* Hillary Clinton *cough* to lay off.

  • Gusty_Wind

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:10 pm PT

    Nice

  • joeamis

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:04 pm PT

    Great to hear a popular company is doing something original, rather than another sequel, port, or normative game. And it's much different than Pong, think about the game (slices, spins, etc). Best news in a long time. Oh, and the graphics are amazing. And it might use the 360 camera for control and might be ported to the REV with that controller too.

  • hirushubi2

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 12:00 pm PT

    im SOLD Seriously i will buy this game.

  • XlpranksterlX

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 11:52 am PT

    Well lets see how it goes.

  • tremo01

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 11:51 am PT

    OH MY GOD I'M SO EXCITED!!!1111oneone111

  • kicking222

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 11:46 am PT

    I won't pick up this game (or a 360), but if Rockstar's doing it, then I trust that "Table Tennis" will be a great title, at least for what it's setting out to be.

  • jjwalker9600

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 11:41 am PT

    I gotta check this out before I judge it.

  • tidus_swain

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 11:40 am PT

    lol, all the sports to make games out of and they chose ping pong...

  • NeoJedi

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 11:38 am PT

    Gun Pong!

  • fat_shark

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 11:26 am PT

    I'd hate to use some kind of paddle peripheral with this - with no proper force feedback, it'd be like playing Super Glove Ball with the Power Glove. Even if there was some sort of vibration, it'd be nothing like the satisfying "thok" of ball against paddle. That said, it could be an amazing display of physics and paddle control. I could picture an arrangement like left thumbstick for position, right thumbstick for english. I'm really interested to see how it turns out.

  • ryustruck

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 11:23 am PT

    *cough first game to get ported from xflop180 to revo cough*

  • timmy0001

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 11:17 am PT

    I hope we see a Stiga or Butterfly licensed motion-sensitive paddle...THAT would be innovation.

  • ArchieGates

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 11:16 am PT

    The screenshots over at IGN do look pretty amazing. It's easy just to call this "pong" but the speed of the game could make it a really intense version of Top Spin. It could end up being a lot of fun.

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