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Rockstar Games, Inc.

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video game industry
Predecessor	BMG Interactive
Founded	December 1998; 26 years ago (1998-12)
Founders	Sam Houser Dan Houser Terry Donovan Jamie King
Headquarters	New York City, New York, U.S.
Key people	Sam Houser (executive producer) Dan Houser (creative director)
Parent	Take-Two Interactive
Subsidiaries	List of subsidiaries
Website	rockstargames.com

Rockstar Games, Inc. (sometimes referred to as Rockstar NYC) is an American video game publisher based in New York City. They are best known for being the publisher to their Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead, Midnight Club, Max Payne, and Manhunt video game series.

Rockstar Games is a successor to BMG Interactive, the former video game publishing division of BMG Entertainment, which in turn was a subisidiary of Bertelsmann. In May 1998, Take-Two Interactive acquired BMG Interactive from BMG Entertainment in exchange for 1.85 million shares, around 16% of the company's common stock. Through the acquisition, Take-Two Interactive gained rights to multiple BMG Interactive franchises, most prominently, Grand Theft Auto. BMG Interactive was subsequently closed, and the Houser brothers, Sam and Dan, moved to New York City, where they, together with Terry Donovan and Jamie King, established Rockstar Games as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive in December 1998.

In the years following, Take-Two Interactive has acquired or opened multiple studios that would become part of the Rockstar Games company tree, the first being DMA Design, which became Rockstar North in March 1999.

History

The Rockstar Games label was founded in December 1998 by Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, and Jamie King. Donovan left the company in January 2007, following a four-month leave of absence. He was replaced by former Capcom managing director, Gary Dale.

The main headquarters of Rockstar Games are located on Broadway in the NoHo neighborhood 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 250 million as of November 2016. Grand Theft Auto V shipped the highest number of units within the series' history, with over 85 million copies, becoming one of the best selling video games of all time.

In March 2014, Rockstar Games received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award at the British Academy Video Games Awards.

Company philosophy

Despite their status as creators of Grand Theft Auto and one of the most successful video game franchises of all-time, Sam Houser and his brother Dan have shied away from the spotlight. They have focused on the Rockstar Games brand, rather than any one person getting the credit for the games' success.

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."

The company has been involved with charitable work ranging from supporting Movember, offering appearances in games as a raffle prize, and charity live streams.

Games published

Films produced or distributed

Subsidiaries

Current

Logo	Name	Location	Years	Notes
	RAGE Technology Group	Carlsbad, California, U.S.	2004–present	In-house game engine team at Rockstar San Diego. Responsible for the development and maintainance of the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine.
	Rockstar India	Bangalore, India	2016–present	Works in conjunction with the Rockstar Dedicated Unit (RDU) at Technicolor India.
	Rockstar International	London, England	2003–present	The international publishing headquarters for Rockstar Games. Located in the same offices as Rockstar London.
	Rockstar Leeds	Leeds, England	2004–present	Created Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories. Also ported L.A. Noire to Microsoft Windows.
	Rockstar Lincoln	Lincoln, England	2002–present	Quality assurance and localization house for games published by Rockstar Games.
	Rockstar London	London, England	2005–present	Finished the development on Manhunt 2, also developed Midnight Club: L.A. Remix. Located in the same offices as Rockstar International.
	Rockstar New England	Ballardvale, Massachusetts, U.S.	2008–present	Responsible for Bully: Scholarship Edition.
	Rockstar North	Edinburgh, Scotland	2002–present	Responsible for Manhunt and the Grand Theft Auto series.
	Rockstar San Diego	Carlsbad, California, U.S.	2002–present	Responsible for the Red Dead, Smuggler's Run and Midnight Club series.
	Rockstar Toronto	Oakville, Ontario, Canada	1999–present	Responsible for The Warriors. Also developed Microsoft Windows ports for Grand Theft Auto IV, The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony, and Grand Theft Auto V.

Former

Logo	Name	Location	Years	Notes
	Rockstar Vancouver	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada	2002–2012	Responsible for Bully. Merged into Rockstar Toronto in July 2012.
	Rockstar Vienna	Vienna, Austria	2003–2006	Porting house with a focus on Xbox. Closed in May 2006, down during the development of Manhunt 2, which was shifted to Rockstar London.

Technology

RAGE

Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is a game engine developed by the Rockstar San Diego-internal RAGE Technology Group, created to facilitate game development on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, OS X and Wii systems.

Social Club

Rockstar Games Social Club is an online gaming service created by Rockstar Games for authentication and multiplayer applications within their games.

Notes

1. Until 2001 as DMA Design.
2. Until 2003 as Angel Studios.
3. Rockstar Studios is a collaborative effort between Rockstar Vancouver, Rockstar London, Rockstar Toronto, Rockstar New England, Rockstar San Diego, Rockstar Leeds, and Rockstar North.

References

1. https://www.telecompaper.com/news/bmg-interactive-acquired-by-taketwo-interactive--132878
2. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/take-2-takes-bmg/1100-2462930/
3. ^ "ROCKSTAR GAMES: Multimedia Designers". Archived from the original on September 27, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
4. "Sam Houser: His-Story". Develop. August 15, 2008. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
5. "GTA, Rockstar co-founding brothers squeeze into Britain's 1,000 richest people list with £90 million". GameSpot. Archived from the original on July 10, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
6. Avery, Laura (2005). "Newsmakers: the people behind today's headlines: 2004 cumulation". Gale Research. p. 212. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
7. http://www.playboy.com/articles/grand-theft-auto-sam-houser-interview
8. Sinclair, Brendan (January 12, 2007). "Terry Donovan leaves Rockstar". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on April 16, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
9. "Capcom exec leaves to join Rockstar". GameSpot. Archived from the original on June 22, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
10. "Rockstar Studios Information". Rockstar Universe. Archived from the original on December 16, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
11. "Rockstar titles have now shipped 250 million copies to date". GameSpot. February 4, 2014. Archived from the original on February 7, 2014. Retrieved February 7, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
12. Cragg, Oliver (November 3, 2016). "Grand Theft Auto life-time sales hit 250 million, GTA 5 and GTA Online ships 70 million units". International Business Times UK. Archived from the original on February 7, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
13. Tassi, Paul. "Here Are The Five Best-Selling Video Games Of All Time". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 7, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
14. Sirani, Jordan (November 7, 2017). "GTA 5 Has Sold-In 85 Million Copies". IGN. Archived from the original on November 9, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
15. Ryan.p (May 18, 2012). "Gaming Gods: Dan and Sam Houser". The Gamer's Hub. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
16. Ivan, Tom. "Rockstar 'deliberately avoiding' FPS genre". ComputerAndVideoGames. Archived from the original on October 29, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
17. Purchese, Robert (October 26, 2009). "Rockstar sponsors Movember charity". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
18. "Rockstar offers game appearance prize for charity". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
19. "Rockstar North | Sick Kids Save Point". sickkidssavepoint.com. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
20. "Rockstar Games on Twitter". Twitter. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

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

• 1998 establishments in New York (state)
• BAFTA fellows
• Rockstar Games
• Software companies based in New York City
• Take-Two Interactive divisions and subsidiaries
• Video game companies established in 1998
• Video game companies of the United States
• Video game development companies
• Video game publishers