Rockstar's Next Game: Table Tennis

[bapenguin]

From IGN (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/693/693369p1.html):

Rockstar was ready to present, and they wanted to work with IGN on the story. Donovan and I talked about the game. With the passion and focus and that has become Rockstar's trademark, he explained to me that the new title was Table Tennis. I think there was a silence on the phone for a few seconds. Rockstar Games, the innovator of urban cool in videogames, the guys who changed the face of this console generation and who made it OK for adults to play games without shame, was making a Ping Pong game. I really didn't know what to say. Table Tennis is a hugely popular sport, one of the most played casual games on Earth. Everybody at one time or another has played it. Walk into IGN's common room, the kitchen, and you'll see a doubles game at any time during the day.
The game will be XBox 360 exclusive.

So this is the exclusive Rock Star title MS managed to grab? Oh...boy....

[Atorak]

*crickets*

[IndependentGMR]

Why not for the Revolution?

[SteveRage]

wait, so do I get to run over and beat 7 kinds of snot out of my opponent whenever I want to? Cram a paddle in em and twist it sideways? how am I goin to justify my upcoming murderous frenzy and get off scott free?

[Salamande]

Glad I checked the main page before submitting my own news about this. If I hadn't heard it from the horse's mouth, I wouldn't have believed this in a million years.

Call me crazy, but Sam Houser's enthusiasm is infectuous. Table Tennis with the intensity and control of Street Fighter...if anyone can make it work, it's Rockstar.

[kokyunage]

Can you shoot prostitutes in-between sets?

[Valkyrist]

Bwahahahahahahahaha.....

Sorry, I just had to stop by and get that outta my system.

[Yeti2005]

This reeks of taking the low profile route after the whole Hot Coffee mess. You can’t possible offend someone with Table Tennis.

[Jiguryo]

This reeks of taking the low profile route after the whole Hot Coffee mess. You can’t possible offend someone with Table Tennis.

Unless, of course, there's a hooker under the table close to the players (on the vein of "Police Academy").

[Yama]

This reeks of taking the low profile route after the whole Hot Coffee mess. You can’t possible offend someone with Table Tennis.

If anyone can offend with something like table tennis, it'd be Rockstar :)

[Blade]

"Why not for the Revolution?" is a good question, though the X360 version will work fine.

[Genital Eclipse]

hell yes ping pong, hope they have a beer pong side game.

[DoubleUranium]

Walk into IGN's common room, the kitchen, and you'll see a doubles game at any time during the day.

That explains the extremely high quality content they manage to post so regularly.

[Vandenh]

Well a good game is a good game. If R* can make this work.. why not.

Or is there a requirement that a game *must* have blood and/or blowjobs?

[TrackZero]

Table Tennis is a hugely popular sport, one of the most played casual games on Earth. Everybody at one time or another has played it.

Heh, I for one haven't bothered to play it before....

[Borys]

Haha, this is too funny, sorry Xbox fans.

Sony gets GTA4 while Microsoft gets... this?

Will this even move 100K units, seriously?

[Abash Alarmist]

This better be a joke...

[TrackZero]

Haha, this is too funny, sorry Xbox fans.

Sony gets GTA4 while Microsoft gets... this?

Will this even move 100K units, seriously?

Well, I'd obviously assume this is an Live Arcade title. And it's not like a developer can't throw out a small game on the side, that's seperate from any large releases.

And seriously, GTA4 will be ported to 360 after release just like they always are.

[Qoz]

Table Tennis? That is just silly.

The primary gameplay mechanic of RL Table Tennis is simply in every shot you make. You need to calculate timing, angle, speed in a split second and the better one wins. This can hardly translate to the 360, but would be perfect for the Revolution controller.

But why would people purchase a high (probably) priced game to simulate a simple sport in which you do not use the dexterity talents acquired in RL Table Tennis? Only multiplayer across Live would save it - and even then its only worth budget money for me.

Unless they make a "Hot Tennis" mod.. or include alot of violence and sex as usual.

[Ajguy]

Well, for one, it is going to carry a $40 price point, which is nice. I wouldn't knock this. We all beg for something new, unique, and different. And now when a major development studio is offering it, you all scoff. I'm actually rather excited. If they can make an engaging and fun control system for this, it could be a sleeper hit. Anyone remember Virtua Tennis?

[CrashCart]

Well, I'd obviously assume this is an Live Arcade title. And it's not like a developer can't throw out a small game on the side, that's seperate from any large releases.
A Live Arcade side project? Wishful thinking, in my opinion. It doesn't look/sound like it from the article and screenshots. The graphics look about on par with some of the FN3 shots I've seen, and I don't see a developer putting that much time into it to sell it to you for ten bucks over Live Arcade.

Just sayin'.

[Derwin]

This reeks of taking the low profile route after the whole Hot Coffee mess. You can’t possible offend someone with Table Tennis.

You've never met a Christian.

[IndependentGMR]

Heh, I for one haven't bothered to play it before....

I have a ping pong table, and play reguarly. I'm not so sure I'd pay $50 to play a virtual version. The game is pretty damn fun, especially if you have some skill.

[IndependentGMR]

You've never met a Christian.

Har har har! I'am a Christian, and I assure you, table tennis does not offend me.

[Cupelix]

http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/815/815145/img_3432243.html

That man has some shiny skin.

[Hugenex]

Rockstar San-Diego is the studio that finished developing Red Dead Revolver among others .Rockstar North is the one in Scotland that developed GTA. Different part of Rockstar family. So it's just another game under big name. It just markets better. And virtua tennis(or ping-pong) is a pretty fucking good casual game.

[Royal Fool]

Seriously... why on Earth would Rockstar greenlight a game like this? It just seems like such a pointless game to develop.

And for the people saying "Well, if anyone can do it, it's Rockstar", please. This is Rockstar San Diego.

[Steve_Erhardt]

We all beg for something new, unique, and different. And now when a major development studio is offering it, you all scoff.
Well, to be fair, I think it's understood that good/cool is in there, too. I'm not saying ping pong isn't good/cool, but if this really is the exclusive Rockstar game for MS, well... sounds lame. I was expecting something more on par with what Sony gets out of them, is all.

[Tia]

But why would people purchase a high (probably) priced .....

Did you even read the article? The game will be prices 39.99. Not probably, definitly.

[midrael]

Somehow I just hope this winds up as the subject of Monday's Penny Arcade comic.

[RevGored]

Did they mispronouce Rape Tennis or something?

[Hugenex]

How about this: Look at Fight Night 3 on X360 2 players on the ring came out early in consoles life Both games look similar .If you compare all launch title on any platform they are usually simple kind of games like sports racing and fighters and maybe some kind of tetris. I'm not saying it's easy to develop these kind of games still it's no RPG. Except for Oblivion but this one was in development for 4 years a little different story.

[kokyunage]

http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/...mg_3432243.html

That man has some shiny skin.

And the wrong color skin. I don't think I have ever in person or in a picture seen a black man playing table tennis. That's like making a basketball game with all white players.

[Viking+]

They have made SO much money that they just don't care anymore.

[Sensei-X]

Wow, someone call Sony, the next-gen war is over and Microsoft won with Table Tennis...... < /sarcasm >

[Magnanimous Gnome]

Well, for one, it is going to carry a $40 price point, which is nice. I wouldn't knock this. We all beg for something new, unique, and different. And now when a major development studio is offering it, you all scoff. I'm actually rather excited. If they can make an engaging and fun control system for this, it could be a sleeper hit. Anyone remember Virtua Tennis?


Two things here:

1)Forty dollars is NOT budget priced. $20-$30 yes, $40 no. It's sad that people now find $40 to be OMG TEH CHEAP!!11!

2)This is not new, unique, or different. Silly yes, pointless probably, any of the others - no. There are plenty of tennis games out there, which this will essentially be from the sound of it. There is also of course pong. Just because it's pong with HD graphics doesn't mean it is new, unique, or different.

Just my two cents. ;)


Oh, one more thing - this whole announcement made me go "HUH??"

[Magnanimous Gnome]

One more thing. Did anyone else notice all of the product placement in that screenshot? I count three logos right there. That's just one screenshot. Is this really needed?

[F3nyx]

"HUH??"That about sums it up.

I can understand making games based on sports like football or soccer or basketball or even regular tennis, since those require some degree of exertion in real life, and we all know gamers are lazy as hell.

But ping-pong is about as un-strenuous as it gets! It'd probably be just as cheap, and a lot more fun, to just buy your own ping-pong table.

edit: Our mission brief at Rockstar has been clear to us from when we founded the company -- to make titles with innovative game play about subject matters we were interested in.haha what the fuck

[Melonman0]

You Got Served!!

...?

[Fernie417]

Aw, and they were only a month away from April first. Too bad they didn't wait until then to announce this. XD

[Spigot]

Maybe IGN and R* accidentally put up their April Fool's Day pages a month early...

Of course, people tend to confuse the different studios in Rockstar. GTA was made by R* North. State Of Emergency wasn't. When R* does a game right, it can be rather awesome. When they don't, the resulting mess can be rather unpleasant.

I wonder if it'll be a straight-up ping-pong simulator or if there will be some kind of strange Sega Soccer Slam-type fantasy ping-pong aspect to it.

[Ajguy]

Magnanimous Gnome, I never said $40 was budget, just nice. And yes, this isn't groundbreaking new gameplay like Odama or something of the sort, but it is something we haven't entirely seen before. Yes, we've all played pong, but not precisely table tennis. Table tennis gives the dynamic of spins, power, etc. I've seen worse ideas turn into fantastic games (I remember being very skeptical of Nintendogs or even the new direction of Resident Evil in RE4 and look how those turned out). And believe me, this isn't from a Rockstar fanboy. I have not enjoyed a single game of theirs, GTA included (after the first 10 minutes). I'm also not saying this is going to be the greatest game ever. I'm just taking the viewpoint of "cautiously optimistic."

[31 Flavas]

Glad I checked the main page before submitting my own news about this. If I hadn't heard it from the horse's mouth, I wouldn't have believed this in a million years.Whether or not the "hot coffee" thing was a planned media event, they sure did get a lot more then they bargened for. It would seem, to me at least, that Rock* is going to take it easy on the "urban anarchy" for a while and this Table Tennis game is the direct result.

edit: well I guess i'm just 4 pages too late, to bring this up.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

Magnanimous Gnome, I never said $40 was budget, just nice. And yes, this isn't groundbreaking new gameplay like Odama or something of the sort, but it is something we haven't entirely seen before. Yes, we've all played pong, but not precisely table tennis. Table tennis gives the dynamic of spins, power, etc. I've seen worse ideas turn into fantastic games (I remember being very skeptical of Nintendogs or even the new direction of Resident Evil in RE4 and look how those turned out). And believe me, this isn't from a Rockstar fanboy. I have not enjoyed a single game of theirs, GTA included (after the first 10 minutes). I'm also not saying this is going to be the greatest game ever. I'm just taking the viewpoint of "cautiously optimistic."

Fair enough. I was kind of harsh on you - I apoligize for that.

[EGO]

Mano-a-Mano tennis that looks like Fight Night 3 and costs $20 less than crap like Full Auto and Ridge Racer?!? I'm trying to understand the problem here.

If it were from Majesco or some other little company, would people be more willing to accept? I tell you, I would be weary if it wasn't from a big name like Rockstar, Ubi, or EA.

Games don't always have to be about blowjobs, felonies and cartoony-looking sandboxes.

Maybe it's like DOA and has a bunch of jubblies? Would that make it better?

[Viking+]

The problem isn't that they are making a non violent game. The problem is that they spend years building up a reputation. AND they built up thier teams and technology making streaming sandboxes. They are considered by many to be the best at doing that. They COULD have made a non violent sandbox.

It sounds to me like someone was forced to make these decisions. It's not like they are not capable of making a next gen streaming sanbox... or have they lost something? I dunno.

Or maybe they have buckets of money and just want to F with people.

[31 Flavas]

If it were from Majesco or some other little company, would people be more willing to accept? I tell you, I would be weary if it wasn't from a big name like Rockstar, Ubi, or EA.I guess, I can't speak for everyone, but Rock* announcing they are producing a Table Tennis game, is/would be like Microsoft announcing they are producing a Barbie game.

You don't go from anarchy, voilence, and "M" rated games to, Table tennis.... It's not cool. Like not including Hi-def, online, or HDD in a next-gen console "not cool".

Games don't always have to be about blowjobs, felonies and cartoony-looking sandboxes.I'll agree with the statement, but you don't find it odd... that the top rated producer of said 'blowjob, felony, and violence' games all of a sudden wants to make a "wholesome" game?

[Laughing_Penguin]

Table Tennis? That is just silly.

The primary gameplay mechanic of RL Table Tennis is simply in every shot you make. You need to calculate timing, angle, speed in a split second and the better one wins. This can hardly translate to the 360, but would be perfect for the Revolution controller.


Wouldn't the above statement also be true for Baseball, Hockey, or even just regular Tennis? By your statement, no sports games would be possible without a Revolution controller, and we know that isn't the case. There have been some excellent Tennis games for people who like those kinds of things.

My first impulse is to think that a Table Tennis game would be silly, but then I think about how it generally plays at the 'professional' level. the games get a lot crazier than a person would expect. If they make it really over the top, it might be fun... or maybe it will just be a forgettable Live Arcade title. Whatever..

[Royal Fool]

But it's not a Live Arcade game, it's a full retail one.

This is whacked.

[buckfutter]

The guys that would become Rockstar North made Lemmings and Space Station Silicon Valley. They make the games they want to make, not games based exclusively on some "hardcore" ethos.

Of course, this is being made by Rockstar San Diego, but just because developers have done one thing in the past doesn't mean that's all they're interested in. Take Warren Spector. System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex. Go back a little further and he made an adventure game with a cartoon style. The advertisement for open positions on his new team suggests that the game they're making with Source is going to be something cartoon related.

Also, I like people laughing about it not being innovative in any way when they don't even know how it controls yet. Not saying it'll be cool or anything, just that a lot of you are overreacting.

[Laughing_Penguin]

But ping-pong is about as un-strenuous as it gets! It'd probably be just as cheap, and a lot more fun, to just buy your own ping-pong table.




This part I disagree with, at least on the "professional" level. I've watched this on ESPN a few times, the guys play some 20+ feet back from the table, running around like madmen, often jumping over the dividers between courts to get the ball. If the game is developed along *those* lines, it would be a lot different than the kind of games most of us would play at home...

[Ajguy]

Fair enough. I was kind of harsh on you - I apoligize for that.

Brothers don't shake hands. Brothers gotta hug!

[RMan]

Wouldn't the above statement also be true for Baseball, Hockey, or even just regular Tennis?
Not to the same degree, no. What he's saying is that the mechanics of table tennis can be completely represented with the revolution controller, whereas it clearly cannot with the 360 controller (that's not to say it can't still be fun, almost nothing we've ever done in a game had it's control represented well in the past, and they're still fun). As far as other sports, baseball and hockey are team sports, and thus only marginally better with the more advanced controller, and normal tennis is close, but technically not as easy as to map to the Rev controller because you have body as well as arm movement. I also think part of his point was that in comparison to other sports, the team aspect is lost and the movement (in comparison to something like tennis) is also not very prevalent in table tennis, so it’s potential to be deep or engaging title when it’s input is limited to a 360 controller is a fair criticism. Perhaps Rockstar has a great idea for the mechanics and it’ll turn out really sweet (I think it has potential), but it’s clearly not as obvious a fit as it would be with the revolution controller (after all, Table Tennis is about the perfect game for the Revolution controller, IMO, assuming it works as advertised). I'm sure that unless it tanks horribly, it'll be ported to the Revolution anyway.

[SuperMonkeyFighter2]

Some of these rants just sound dumb ... sorry. First, why does rockstar have to = only violent games? What about Midnight Club or Smuggler's Run?
Secondly, so what if they want to make a ping pong game? If it's good, it's good. If it sucks it sucks ... it's obvious that they're trying to further expand their brand name across different age groups (MC was rated E by the way).

[vivafletcher]

This seems like a huge slap in the face to the 360. "We're going to use your system to 'try something different.' But don't worry-- Sony will get stuck with the old, boring stuff like GTA."
Yes, maybe it will be fun, and maybe it'll be a great deal for the money. But we're discussing a new Rockstar game...and it's ping pong. At the end of the day, it'll always be ping pong.

Ping pong. From Rockstar. And they want you to pay $40 for it. And then they'll expect tax, too. Again, ping pong. Seriously. The more I type it, the more surreal it seems. OK, I'll stop now.

But it's still...you know.

[SuperMonkeyFighter2]

This seems like a huge slap in the face to the 360. "We're going to use your system to 'try something different.' But don't worry-- Sony will get stuck with the old, boring stuff like GTA."
Yes, maybe it will be fun, and maybe it'll be a great deal for the money. But we're discussing a new Rockstar game...and it's ping pong. At the end of the day, it'll always be ping pong.

Ping pong. From Rockstar. And they want you to pay $40 for it. And then they'll expect tax, too. Again, ping pong. Seriously. The more I type it, the more surreal it seems. OK, I'll stop now.

But it's still...you know.

I don't get it ... whay is this a slap in the face? What do you know, or have read that says GTA will not be out for 360? What makes you think they're holding back? If you read the interview on IGN VERY carefully, you might notice something ...
As for the Ping Pong from Rockstar Games comment at the end... sure they expect Ping Pong fans to pay $40 for it. They don't expect anyone to pay tax though, the government does.
What's the big deal, really? I like Ubisoft games ... Splinter Cell is great. Does that mean I get in a tizzy when they release Rayman?
Lastly, this was obviously a can't win situation. Let's say they did announce a GTA title. I promise you there would have been tons of people posting how tired they are of GTA as well.
I think what they're doing is interesting ... whether I buy it depends on word of mouth, and trying the game out. However, at the very least there's another title to try out for the 360.

[riposte101]

Table tennis will go a long way in helping X360 in asia. This game will appeal to that market.

[EGO]

It's not like they're not doing violent games still, they're just doing something different and for that I give them props. I'm not sure if I'll immediately get Tennis, but for $40, if it's got heated on-line play, I probably will.

It's funny how all the trolls and fanboys bitch that there's nothing but sequels and licenses, but when somebody does something different, they get flamed for it.

Also, where's the article tht says GtA is going to be exclusive on PS3?!?! I've NEVER read this, but everybody keeps saying it. Does it make sense for a big compay to take their biggest franchise and put it only on the smallest installed base? (PS3 will have much lower #'s than X360 by the time it comes out...)

[Sl1pstream]

But it's ping pong. You can play that in real life with a real opponent at home and it will be cheaper than buying the videogame to play virtual ping pong. There are online flash games that offer free ping pong and it's lame.

[SuperMonkeyFighter2]

But it's ping pong. You can play that in real life with a real opponent at home and it will be cheaper than buying the videogame to play virtual ping pong. There are online flash games that offer free ping pong and it's lame.

The same can be said for basketball ($10 ball and a schoolyard). Any sport can be played cheaply more or less (and probably be more fun if you play it in real life also).
Plus, there are online flash games for virtually any type of game (shooter, sports, etc) ... it's all about production and gameplay that defines any title out there. Why comdemn this game (or ANY game) without even playing it?

[Spigot]

Why comdemn this game (or ANY game) without even playing it?
Because we're on the internet, these are fora and that's what we do :)

I figure that the reaction is to be expected, given the pedigree of Rockstar (even with their non-GTA titles). That said, I think that people should wait a little and see exactly what kind of table tennis Rockstar is making before gathering their pitchforks and storming the castle.