Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis

Ping-Pong may not be the first thing that springs to your mind when you think about the whole next-gen console, big-time graphics, pound-your-face-with-hi-techitude jamboree, and yet, that simple premise serves as the foundation for the newly announced 360 title Table Tennis.

In a bizarre twist, Table Tennis springs from Rockstar Games, the company renowned for savagely violent games like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt. Developed by Rockstar's San Diego arm, the dudes responsible for the Midnight Club racing series, Table Tennis has been described by Sam Houser, Founder and Executive Producer of Rockstar, as "perfectly addictive in its focused simplicity..."

He went on to get all philosophical in the press release sent out Monday, "It is a distillation of game design philosophy ... concentrating the hardware's entire power on one activity, with the aim of doing that better than it's ever been done before."

Whether Table Tennis turns out to be the hottest Ping-Pong game ever or an elaborate hoax designed to mask the development of the next installment in the Grand Theft Auto series, we've got early screens of the title. Table Tennis ships on May 22nd, 2006 for a retail price of a measly $39.99.