5th June 2010 - In our 7th developer profile, we look at the GTA series developer Rockstar Games.
Developer Name: Rockstar Games
Subsidiary Of: Take-Two Interactive
Founded: 1998
About: The only one word to sum up Rockstar Games is Ambition. And looking at their back catalogue, its easy to see why; Rockstar have been at the head of game innovation and boundary pushing goodness for as long as anyone can remember.
Lets put it in perspective. The Rockstar brand label first appeared on what is now considered one of the most revolutionary games of all time; Grand Theft Auto, and has since been on well over 40 Rockstar published games, making them one of the most prolific game publishers in the past decade and given most of said games were actually developed by one of the 11 Rockstar Games development studios that has been active since their humble beginnings, also make them one of the most respected and seasoned developers in the world today.
Rockstars main Studios are arguably Rockstar North, who are responsible for all the Grand Theft Auto game, as well as Manhunt and even the original Lemmings game before they were made into ‘Rockstar‘, and Rockstar San Diego, who are the creators of the Red Dead series and Rockstars famous RAGE (Rockstar Advance Game Engine), which provides the basis for all Rockstars biggest, most successful games. RAGE is also considered one of the worlds most powerful game engines, up there with Unreal Engine and Valve’s Source Engine.
So even in such a brief biography, its easy to see why Rockstar have been so successful over the years. They are constantly pushing boundaries of every genre, from Racing to Shooting, have mainstreamed and reinvented open-world gameplay over and over again, constantly produce nothing but triple A titles and even fund, publish and produce all their own work. Rockstar are also no stranger to controversy, with the obvious infractions caused by most of the Grand Theft Auto games and especially Manhunt. Its good to see a developer take risks with content rather than dumb everything down to please the more sensitive citizens.
With 10 active Studios, and a streak which does anything but hint a slowdown, Rockstar Games look to remain the worlds premier multi-platform developer and with the recent release of Red Dead Redemption, are sure to be in the spotlight for a while in anticipation of their next big title.
Read All Age Gaming’s Red Dead Redemption review HERE.
Past Games:
- Grand Theft Auto (Playstation/PC/Gameboy Colour, 1997)
- Grand Theft Auto 2 (Playstation/Dreamcast/PC/Gameboy Colour, 1999)
- Wild Metal: Reclaim the Future (Dreamcast, 2000)
- Midnight Club: Street Racing (Playstation 2, 2000)
- Smugglers Run (Playstation 2, 2000)
- Smugglers Run 2: Hostile Territory (Playstation 2, 2001)
- Grand Theft Auto 3 (Playstation 2/Xbox/PC, 2002)
- Smugglers Run Warzones (Gamecube, 2002)
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Playstation 2/Xbox/PC, 2002)
- Midnight Club 2 (Playstation 2/Xbox/PC, 2003)
- Manhunt (Playstation 2/Xbox/PC, 2003)
- Red Dead Revolver (Playstation 2/Xbox, 2004)
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Playstation 2/Xbox/PC, 2004)
- Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition (Playstation 2/Xbox/PSP, 2005)
- The Warriors (Playstation 2/Xbox/PSP, 2005)
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PSP, 2005)
- Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Xbox 360/Wii, 2006)
- Bully/Canis Canem Edit (Playstation 2/Xbox 360/Wii/PC, 2006)
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PSP, 2006)
- Manhunt 2 (Playstation 2/Wii/PC/PSP, 2007)
- Grand Theft Auto IV (Playstation 3/Xbox 360/PC, 2008)
- Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Playstation 3/Xbox 360, 2008)
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Nintendo DS/PSP/iPhone/Zune, 2009)
- Beaterator (PSP/iPhone, 2009)
- Red Dead Redemption (Playstation 3/Xbox 360, 2010)
Upcoming Games:
- Max Payne 3 (Playstation 3/Xbox 360/PC, 2010)
- Agent (Playstation 3, TBA)
*Note: Only Rockstar developed original games were listed under ‘Past Games’. No ports, expansions or updates/remixes were included either.
Article By John Elliott