Rockstar Games

Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, and as successor to BMG Interactive, a dormant video game publisher of which Take-Two had previously acquired the assets. Founding members of the company were Sam and Dan Houser, Terry Donovan and Jamie King, who worked for Take-Two at the time, and of which the Houser brothers were previously executives at BMG Interactive. Co-founders Sam and Dan Houser head the studio as president and vice-president for creative, respectively.<ref name="vulture">Template:Cite web</ref>

Since 1999, several companies acquired by or established under Take-Two have become part of Rockstar Games, such as Rockstar Canada (later renamed Rockstar Toronto) becoming the first one in 1999, and Rockstar India the most recent in 2016. All companies organized under Rockstar Games bear the "Rockstar" name and logo. In this context, Rockstar Games is sometimes also referred to as Rockstar New York, Rockstar NY or Rockstar NYC. Rockstar Games also sports a motion capture studio in Bethpage, New York.<ref name="vulture" />

Rockstar Games predominantly publishes games in the action-adventure genre, while racing games also saw success for the company. One of such action-adventure game franchises is Grand Theft Auto, which Rockstar Games took over from BMG Interactive, which published the series' original 1997 entry. The most recent game in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, has shipped over 110 million copies since its release in September 2013, making it one of the best-selling video games of all time. Other popular franchises published by Rockstar Games are Red Dead, Midnight Club, Max Payne and Manhunt.

History

In May 1998, Take-Two Interactive acquired the assets of dormant British video game publisher BMG Interactive from its parent, BMG Entertainment (in turn a Bertelsmann subsidiary), in exchange for 1.85 million shares, around 16% of the company's common stock.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Through the acquisition, Take-Two Interactive gained rights to BMG Interactive-owned intellectual properties, including Grand Theft Auto and the upcoming Space Station Silicon Valley.<ref name="Design Museum">Template:Cite web</ref> BMG Interactive executives Sam Houser, Dan Houser and Jamie King, as well as Terry Donovan of BMG Entertainment-owned record label Arista Records, subsequently moved to New York City to work for Take-Two Interactive.<ref name="Design Museum" /> In December 1998, the Houser brothers, Donovan and King established Rockstar Games as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, acting as the company's high-end publishing label.<ref name="Design Museum" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The formation was formally announced on January 22, 1999.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In January 2007, Take-Two Interactive announced that Donovan, until then managing director for Rockstar Games, left the company following a four-month leave of absence.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was succeeded by Gary Dale, who became chief operating officer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Dale previously worked with the Houser brothers and King at BMG Interactive, but left the company when it was acquired by Take-Two Interactive, and joined Capcom's European operations as managing director in 2003.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

As of February 2014, Rockstar Games titles have shipped more than 250 million copies,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the largest franchise being the Grand Theft Auto series, which alone has shipments of at least 250 million as of November 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Grand Theft Auto V shipped the highest number of units within the series' and the company's history, with over 110 million copies, becoming one of the bestselling video games of all time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

At the British Academy Video Games Awards in March 2014, Rockstar Games was honored with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award for "creating intricately layered interactive worlds that have kept the company at the forefront of the gaming industry for over a decade, both critically and commercially".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Jennifer Kolbe, who started at the front desk of Take-Two, acts as Rockstar Games' head of publishing and oversees all development studios.<ref name="vulture" /><ref name="kotaku">Template:Cite web</ref> Simon Ramsey is the company's head of PR and communications.<ref name="kotaku" />

In May 2019, Rockstar Games announced that they had acquired Dhruva Interactive from Starbreeze Studios for $7.9 million, with the sale expecting to finalize by the first half of 2019. The company will operate alongside Rockstar India, which will add an additional 320 employees to the studio.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Company philosophy

In October 2011, Dan Houser told Famitsu that Rockstar Games was intentionally avoiding developing games in the first-person shooter genre, because "it is in our DNA to avoid doing what other companies are doing [...] the goalpoint of Rockstar is to have the players really feel what we're trying to do."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Houser went on to say "Our games up to now have been different from any genre that existed at the time; we 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. [...] If we make the sort of games we want to play, then we believe people are going to buy them."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The company has been involved with charitable work ranging from supporting Movember, offering appearances in games as a raffle prize, and charity live streams.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Films produced

Year	Title	Genre
1999	GTA 2 – The Movie	Crime drama
2004	The Football Factory	Drama
	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Introduction	Crime drama
2005	Sunday Driver	Documentary
2010	Red Dead Redemption: The Man from Blackwater	Western drama

Subsidiaries

Logo	Name	Location	Years	Notes
50px	Rockstar India	Bangalore, India	2016–present	Daniel Smith heads the studio as general manager. The team at Dhruva Interactive will operate alongside this studio.
50px	Rockstar International	London, England	2003–present	The international publishing headquarters for Rockstar Games. Located in the same offices as Rockstar London.
50px	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.
50px	Rockstar Lincoln	Lincoln, England	2002–present	Dedicated quality assurance and localization house for games published by Rockstar Games.
50px	Rockstar London	London, England	2005–present	Completed the development on Manhunt 2 and Midnight Club: L.A. Remix. Located in the same offices as Rockstar International.
50px	Rockstar New England	Ballardvale, Massachusetts, U.S.	2008–present	Responsible for Bully: Scholarship Edition.
50px	Rockstar North	Edinburgh, Scotland	2002–present	Responsible for Manhunt and the Grand Theft Auto series.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
50px	Rockstar San Diego	Carlsbad, California, U.S.	2002–present	Responsible for the Red Dead, Smuggler's Run and Midnight Club series. Also houses RAGE Technology Group, an in-house game engine team that is responsible for the development and maintenance of the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine.
50px	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
50px	Rockstar Vancouver	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada	2002–2012	Responsible for Bully. Merged into Rockstar Toronto in July 2012.
50px	Rockstar Vienna	Vienna, Austria	2003–2006	Porting house with a focus on Xbox. Closed down in May 2006, during the development of Manhunt 2, which was transferred to Rockstar London.

Technology

RAGE

Template:Main 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

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

External links

• Template:Official website