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Rockstar Games, Inc.

Company type	Subsidiary Of Take-Two Interactive
Industry	Video games
Predecessor	BMG Interactive
Founded	1998; 27 years ago (1998)
Founders	Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Gary Foreman, Jamie King, Sam Houser
Headquarters	New York City, New York, United States
Key people	Sam Houser (president) Dan Houser (vice president)
Products	List of Rockstar Games products
Owner	Take-Two Interactive
Number of employees	900+ (8 studios)
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. The publisher is known for the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Red Dead, Midnight Club, Bully, Manhunt, The Warriors games and L.A. Noire, as well as 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 1998 by the British video game producers Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Jamie King and Gary Foreman.

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

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 has shipments of at least 220 million. In March 2014, Rockstar Games received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award at the British Academy Video Games Awards.

Company philosophy

In October 2011, Rockstar creative vice-president Dan Houser told Famitsu that Rockstar was 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."

Rockstar has since released an enhanced remake of Grand Theft Auto V for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which can be fully played from the first-person perspective. This was made possible in part with higher quality firearm visuals, hindered audio-visual stimuli due to headgear, and additional animations - helping the game achieve aesthetic parity with other first-person shooters.

Studios

Current studios

Logo	Name	Location	Years as Rockstar division	Notes
	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.
File:Rockstar Lincoln logo.svg	Rockstar Lincoln	Lincoln, England	1999–present	Quality assurance and localisation, previously known as Tarantula Studios.
	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.
File: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.
File:Rockstar North logo.svg	Rockstar North	Edinburgh, Scotland	1999–present	Founded in 1988 as DMA Design and subsequently acquired in 1999, they are famous for the Grand Theft Auto, and Manhunt franchises, as well as the original Lemmings games.
	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.
File: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

Logo	Name	Location	Years as Rockstar division	Notes
File:Rockstar Japan logo.svg	Rockstar Japan	Tokyo, Japan	2005	Formally a label created between Rockstar and Capcom, who previously held exclusive distribution rights to the Grand Theft Auto series in Japan.
	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.
	Rockstar Vienna	Vienna, Austria	2003–2006	Previously known as Neo Software; closed on May 11, 2006. They ported the Max Payne series to consoles, and created some of Manhunt 2 before being closed down.

Technology

RAGE

Rockstar Games have developed their own game engine called the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) to facilitate game development on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows, Mac and Wii systems.

Social Club

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

External developers

• Edge of Reality developed Monster Truck Madness 64.
• Z-Axis developed Thrasher presents Skate and Destroy.
• Opus in collaboration with ASCII Entertainment developed Surfing H3O.
• Bungie developed the game Oni for Windows and Macintosh, which was then ported by Rockstar to the PS2 and published by them. Before Bungie was bought by Microsoft, their breakthrough product, Halo, was planned for release on video game consoles with Rockstar as publisher.
• VIS Entertainment in collaboration with Dubtitled Entertainment is known for developing the State of Emergency game.
• Capcom had early development in Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Revolver and previously owned the Japanese distribution rights to the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
• Digital Eclipse Software collaborated with Rockstar North while developing Grand Theft Auto Advance.
• Remedy Entertainment developed Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.
• Team Bondi an Australian independent gaming developer who developed L.A. Noire with Rockstar.
• War Drum Studios ported a number of Rockstar titles to mobile platforms such as Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Max Payne. They also ported Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to the Xbox 360.
• Image Metrics has done most of the facial animation in many of Rockstar's games.

Games published

Films

In 2011, Rockstar Games trademarked Rockstar Films.

References

1. British Academy of Film and Television Arts (March 12, 2014). "Fellowship in 2014 – Rockstar Games". YouTube. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
2. "Rockstar Games Multimedia Designers". Retrieved March 24, 2013.
3. "Rockstar Games Corporate Info". Retrieved March 24, 2013.
4. http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-rockstar-co-founding-brothers-squeeze-into-britain-s-1-000-richest-people-list-with-ps90-million/1100-6419714/
5. Laura Avery (2005). Newsmakers: the people behind today's headlines: 2004 cumulation. Gale Research. p. 212.
6. "Rockstar NYC Job openings". Rockstar Games. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
7. "Rockstar Studios Information". Rockstar Universe. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
8. "Rockstar titles have now shipped 250 million copies to date". GameSpot. February 4, 2014. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
9. "Bafta fellowship for Rockstar Games". BBC News. BBC. March 3, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
10. Ivan, Tom. "Rockstar 'deliberately avoiding' FPS genre". ComputerAndVideoGames.
11. ^ Krupa, Daniel (November 4, 2014). "Grand Theft Auto 5: A New Perspective". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on November 4, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
12. "Rockstar Acquires Mad Doc Software". RockstarWatch. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
13. "Take-Two Interactive Buys DMA Design for $11m". Computergram International  – via HighBeam (subscription required) . September 30, 1999. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
14. Jared Linwood (July 9, 2012). "Rockstar Vancouver merges with Rockstar Toronto and expands". RockstarWatch. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
15. Jurie Horneman (May 11, 2006). "Rockstar Vienna closes its doors". Intelligent Artifice. Retrieved April 21, 2007.
16. "Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. to Acquire 19.9% Interest in Bungie Software Products Corporation". Take-Two Interactive Software.
17. "Grand Theft Auto 3 for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store". Apple Inc. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
18. "PSA: Max Payne Mobile now available". Joystiq. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
19. McElroy, Justin. "Report: Rockstar Films trademarked by Rockstar Games". Joystiq.

External links

• Official website

v t e Take-Two Interactive
2K	Current studios 31st Union Cat Daddy Games Cloud Chamber Firaxis Games games Gearbox Software Hangar 13 HB Studios Mass Media Visual Concepts Former studios 2K Australia 2K China 2K Czech 2K Los Angeles 2K Marin Frog City Software Indie Built Irrational Games PopTop Software Venom Games Notable games BioShock series Borderlands series Civilization series Duke Nukem series Evolve Lego 2K Drive Mafia series Prey Spec Ops series The Darkness series XCOM series 2K series MLB 2K series NBA 2K series NBA 2K League NHL 2K series PGA Tour 2K WWE 2K series
Rockstar Games	Current studios Rockstar Dundee Rockstar India Rockstar Leeds Rockstar Lincoln Rockstar London Rockstar New England Rockstar North Rockstar San Diego Rockstar Toronto Former studios Dhruva Interactive Rockstar Vancouver Rockstar Vienna Notable games Bully Grand Theft Auto series L.A. Noire Manhunt series Max Payne series Midnight Club series Red Dead series The Warriors Technology Rockstar Advanced Game Engine
Zynga	Current studios NaturalMotion BossAlien Peak Games Small Giant Games Zynga Eugene Zynga with Friends Notable games Chess with Friends Clay Jam Drop7 Empires & Allies FarmVille Gems with Friends Hit It Rich! Word Streak with Friends Words with Friends Zynga Poker Technology Chartboost Euphoria
Other	Ghost Story Games Nordeus Socialpoint List of games List of acquisitions
Former labels	Double Take Comics Gathering of Developers Global Star Software Gotham Games Jack of All Games Private Division Take-Two Licensing TalonSoft

• BAFTA fellows
• Companies based in New York City
• Companies established in 1998
• Multinational companies headquartered in the United States
• Rockstar Games
• Take-Two Interactive
• Video game companies of the United States
• Video game development companies
• Video game publishers