Rockstar Games

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Rockstar Games, Inc.
Type Subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive
Industry Video games
Predecessor(s) BMG Interactive
Founded 1998
Headquarters New York City, New York, United States
Key people Sam Houser (President)
Dan Houser (Vice President)
Products List of Rockstar Games products
Owner(s) Take-Two Interactive
Employees 900+ (8 studios)[1]
Parent Take-Two Interactive
Website www.rockstargames.com

Rockstar Games is a multinational video game developer and publisher based in New York City, owned by Take-Two Interactive following its purchase of British video game publisher BMG Interactive.[2] The publisher are known for the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, L.A. Noire, The Warriors, Bully, Manhunt, Midnight Club, State of Emergency, and Red Dead games as well the use of open world, free roaming settings in their games. It comprises studios that have been acquired and renamed as well as others that have been created internally. While many of the studios Take-Two Interactive has acquired have been merged into the Rockstar brand, several other recent ones have retained their previous identities and have become part of the company's 2K Games division. The Rockstar Games label was founded in New York City in 1998[3] by the British video game producers Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Jamie King and Gary Foreman.[4]

The main headquarters of Rockstar Games (commonly referred to as Rockstar NYC)[5] is located on Broadway in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, part of the Take-Two Interactive offices. It is home to the marketing, public relations and product development departments.[citation needed]

As of February 2014, Rockstar Games titles have shipped more than 250 million copies. The largest franchise being the Grand Theft Auto series which alone have shipments of at least 157.5 million.[6] In March 2014, Rockstar Games received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award at the British Academy Video Games Awards.[7]

Company philosophy[edit]

In October 2011, Rockstar creative vice president Dan Houser told Famitsu that Rockstar is intentionally avoiding developing in the first-person shooter genre. "We're deliberately avoiding that right now", he said, according to a 1UP.com translation. "It's in our DNA to avoid doing what other companies are doing. I suppose you could say that Max Payne 3 is something close to an FPS, but there are really unique aspects to the setting and gameplay there, too, not just in the story. You have to have originality in your games; you have to have some kind of interesting message. You could say that the goalpoint of Rockstar is to have the players really feel what we're trying to do". Houser went on to say that Rockstar has "made new genres by ourselves with games like the GTA series. We didn't rely on testimonials in a business textbook to do what we've done. I think we succeeded precisely because we didn't concentrate on profit... If we make the sort of games we want to play, then we believe people are going to buy them."[8]

Studios[edit]

Current studios[edit]

Logo Name Location Years as Rockstar division Notes
Rockstar Japan logo.svg Rockstar Japan Tokyo, Japan 2005–present Responsible for localisation of Rockstar titles in Japan.
Rockstar Leeds logo.svg Rockstar Leeds Leeds, England 2004–present Previously known as Mobius Entertainment, they created Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories for the PlayStation Portable, Max Payne for the Game Boy Advance, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and the music game Beaterator. The studio's most recent work is the Microsoft Windows version of L.A. Noire.
Rockstar Lincoln logo.svg Rockstar Lincoln Lincoln, England 1999–present Quality assurance and localisation, previously known as Tarantula Studios.
Rockstar London logo.svg Rockstar London London, England 2005–present Formed in November 2005. Took over development of Manhunt 2 after Rockstar Vienna closed and developed the portable adaptation of Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Midnight Club LA Remix.
Rockstar New England logo.svg Rockstar New England Andover, Massachusetts 2008–present Acquired on April 4, 2008 and was previously known as Mad Doc Software. They developed the Wii, Xbox 360, and PC ports of Bully.[9]
Rockstar North logo.svg Rockstar North Edinburgh, Scotland 1999–present Founded in 1988 as DMA Design, they are famous for the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt franchises, as well as the original Lemmings games.
Rockstar San Diego logo.svg Rockstar San Diego Carlsbad, California 2003–present Previously known as Angel Studios, they developed the RAGE engine, Red Dead Revolver and Red Dead Redemption, the Smuggler's Run series, the first two Midtown Madness games and the Midnight Club series.
Rockstar Toronto logo.svg Rockstar Toronto Oakville, Ontario 1999–present Previously known as Rockstar Canada. Their most well-known work is The Warriors, an adaptation of the cult classic film and the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.

Former studios[edit]

Logo Name Location Years as Rockstar division Notes
Rockstar Vancouver logo.svg Rockstar Vancouver Vancouver, British Columbia 2002–2012 Previously known as Barking Dog Studios, they created the PlayStation 2 title Bully and the third game in the Max Payne series, Max Payne 3. Vancouver merged with Rockstar Toronto in 2012.[10]
Rockstar Vienna logo.svg Rockstar Vienna Vienna, Austria 2003–2006 Previously known as Neo Software; closed on May 11, 2006.[11] They ported the Max Payne series to consoles, and created some of Manhunt 2 before being closed down.

Technology[edit]

RAGE[edit]

Rockstar Games have developed their own game engine called the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) to facilitate game development on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Mac and Wii systems.

Social Club[edit]

The Rockstar Games Social Club is an online gaming service created by Rockstar for use with their games.

External developers[edit]

Games published[edit]

Films[edit]

Films Release Genre
The Football Factory1 2004 Drama
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Introduction 2004 Drama
Sunday Driver1 2005 Documentary
Red Dead Redemption: The Man from Blackwater 2010 Drama
Notes
  1. Rockstar Games is credited as executive producers.

In 2011, Rockstar Games trademarked Rockstar Films.[15]

References[edit]

  1. ^ British Academy of Film and Television Arts (12 March 2014). "Fellowship in 2014 – Rockstar Games". YouTube. Retrieved 13 March 2014. 
  2. ^ "Rockstar Games Multimedia Designers". Retrieved March 24, 2013. 
  3. ^ "Rockstar Games Corporate Info". Retrieved March 24, 2013. 
  4. ^ Laura Avery (2005). Newsmakers: the people behind today's headlines: 2004 cumulation. Gale Research. p. 212. 
  5. ^ "Rockstar NYC Job openings". Rockstar Games. Retrieved April 5, 2013. 
  6. ^ "Rockstar titles have now shipped 250 million copies to date". Gamespot. February 4, 2014. Retrieved February 7, 2014. 
  7. ^ "Bafta fellowship for Rockstar Games". BBC News. BBC. 3 March 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2014. 
  8. ^ Ivan, Tom. "Rockstar 'deliberately avoiding' FPS genre". ComputerAndVideoGames. 
  9. ^ "Rockstar Acquires Mad Doc Software". RockstarWatch. Retrieved April 4, 2008. 
  10. ^ Jared Linwood (July 9, 2012). "Rockstar Vancouver merges with Rockstar Toronto and expands". RockstarWatch. Retrieved July 9, 2012. 
  11. ^ Jurie Horneman (May 11, 2006). "Rockstar Vienna closes its doors". Intelligent Artifice. Retrieved April 21, 2007. 
  12. ^ "Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. to Acquire 19.9% Interest in Bungie Software Products Corporation.". Take-Two Interactive Software. 
  13. ^ "Grand Theft Auto 3 for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store". Apple Inc. Retrieved 22 October 2012. 
  14. ^ "PSA: Max Payne Mobile now available". Joystiq. Retrieved 22 October 2012. 
  15. ^ McElroy, Justin. "Report: Rockstar Films trademarked by Rockstar Games". Joystiq. 

External links[edit]