Table Tennis bounces onto XBL

Following speculation last week on the blog of Xbox Live programming director Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, a demo of Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace. Weighing in at 526MB, the demo features pro playable characters Mark and Liu Ping and a three-game set in China's National Table Tennis Auditorium. It has options for one- or two-player offline games, but it does not support Xbox Live matchups.

The Table Tennis release is the latest in a series of high-profile demos to make it onto Xbox Live. Like the recent Dead or Alive 4 demo, the Table Tennis demo arrives long after the full game was shipped to stores. Other recent demos to help Xbox 360 owners through the summer include The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II and Prey.

Besides being the subject of a fair amount of critical acclaim, Table Tennis also uses the same graphics technology as Rockstar's most anticipated release of next year. It is based on Take-Two's proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, which will also power Grand Theft Auto IV. (Current-generation Grand Theft Autos use the RenderWare engine, which is now owned by Take-Two rival Electronic Arts.) GTA IV will arrive simultaneously on the 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 16, 2007, in the US, and October 19, 2007, in the UK.