Full Focus state, in which their shots are faster and more accurate. Players can also perform soft shots and smashes, respectively decreasing and increasing the speed of the ball, and Focus Shots, high-powered returns that help players counter difficult shots. The Wii port of the game offers three different control schemes: Standard, using the Wii Remote; Sharp Shooter, in which the player flicks the Nunchuk's analog stick instead of the Wii Remote to aim and hit the ball; and Control Freak, using the Nunchuk's analog stick to control the player's position. Development Preliminary work on Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis began in 2005, prior to the announcement of the Xbox 360, which the game was developed for. Rockstar San Diego, the core team behind the game, found that the hardware allowed them to develop games at a faster pace than with the previous hardware. Rockstar president Sam Houser felt that Rockstar San Diego was a suitable developer for the game due to their demonstration of skill in developing advanced engines, particularly early in a console generation, citing Midnight Club: Street Racing and Smuggler's Run (both 2000), which were launch games for the PlayStation 2. Houser also said that, though the game's physics were achievable on the old hardware, the team waited for the possibility to develop for the Xbox 360 due to the "different level of production and technology" that it allowed. In developing the game's concept, the team was fascinated with concentrating the entire power of a particular hardware into one activity. The game runs off the proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE), and is the first game to do so. Network programmer John Gierach found the development of the online multiplayer mode challenging, due to the level of realism the development team attempted to create. In addition, the speed and accuracy required for the game was also a challenge for the team, due to the fast pace of the matches. When discussing the possibility of porting the game to the Wii, the team agreed almost immediately, as they felt that the console was a "perfect fit" for the game. While developing the Wii version, the team particularly considered how to serve all types of players, thus allowing a range of different control schemes. The game was first announced by Rockstar Games on March 3, 2006. Journalists noted the surprised reactions that the announcement caused within the gaming industry,