Rockstar Astounds the Game Industry

In some of the most stunning news to hit the game industry since the hot coffee incident regarding Rockstar, comes news that is so shocking, so unbelievable, so totally *weird*, that most of us here at GN needed to sit down and take a few deep breaths before we continued our assignements. Rockstar is developing a new game for the Xbox 360, and that game is going to be about: PING PONG No, we™re not kidding, and neither is Rockstar. This gem of news was released today by none other than the president of Rockstar Games, Sam Houser. In an interview, Houser gave reasons as to why Rockstar was going on such a different path than their usual gritty shooter titles, He responded: Mainly because we absolutely love table tennis and wanted to try and make something that could show the audience what could be possible — on a relatively focused level — in the next generation of videogames. Houser was then asked on why Rockstar decided exclusively on the Xbox 360 rather than the other next-gen consoles to develop the new title on: The power of the new hardware and the higher resolution of new televisions really allow us to give the game an immediacy and physicality that wasn’t possible on current-gen hardware. Rudimentary ball and racket physics would have been possible but we wanted to wait for the 360 because it allowed us to bring a completely different level of production and technology to the game. As far as online capability, Houser remained quite on the subject, but did indicate another first for Rockstar, the price point of the new game title will be only $39.99. This price will be much lower than the suggested retail price of 360 games, which is $59.99. Houser said: Rockstar’s relationship with people who play our games is something we value and treasure greatly. We believe that Table Tennis is as pure, polished, intense and fun a game as the other games we have created, but it would be naïve of us not to recognize that this is a different sort of game to Grand Theft Auto, for example. In terms of value for money we think the hundreds of hours of gameplay of Grand Theft Auto is probably worth more than the $50 price tag, but rather than pushing to increase the price of games, we’d rather keep on over-delivering on value. Rockstar™s decision to delve into a totally different genre of video game is a stunning move, but also a smart one. If you ask anyone what type of game Rockstar produces, 99% of these questioned will answer with, violent. The niche that Rockstar has carved out for itself has suddenly turned into a hole. Perhaps a hole that they realize may be one so deep that they can™t get out of. Their intention to get out and produce something this different may be the first steps in trying to realign itself in order to gain market share with other gamers whose interests may not lie only with GTA type games. In any event, it is a brave move, if not astounding in the fact that Rockstar is replacing its guns for ping pong rackets.