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.[2]

Since 1999, several companies acquired by or established under Take-Two became 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 that context, Rockstar Games is sometimes also referred to as Rockstar New York or Rockstar NYC. Rockstar also sports a motion capture studio in Bethpage, New York.[2]

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 95 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.[3][4] 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*.[5] 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 Cityto work for Take-Two Interactive.[5] 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.[5][6][7][8] The formation was formally announced on January 22, 1999.[9]

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.[10] He was succeeded by Gary Dale, who became chief operating officer.[11] 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.[12][13]

As of February 2014, Rockstar Games titles have shipped more than 250 million copies,[14] the largest franchise being the *Grand Theft Auto* series, which alone has shipments of at least 250 million as of November 2016.[15] *Grand Theft Auto V* alone shipped the highest number of units within the series' and the company's history, with over 100 million copies, becoming one of the bestselling video games of all time.[16][17]

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".[18][19] Jennifer Kolbe, who started at the front desk of Take-Two, acts as Rockstar Games' head of publishing and oversees all development studios.[2][20] Simon Ramsey is the company's head of PR and communications.[20]

## 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."[21][22] 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."[23]

The company has been involved with charitable work ranging from supporting Movember, offering appearances in games as a raffle prize, and charity live streams.[24][25]

## Games published

Main article: List of games by Rockstar Games

## Films produced

* *GTA 2 – The Movie*
* *The Football Factory*
* *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Introduction*
* *Sunday Driver*
* *Red Dead Redemption: The Man from Blackwater*

## Subsidiaries

* Rockstar China
* Rockstar India
* Rockstar International
* Rockstar Japan
* Rockstar Leeds
* Rockstar Lincoln
* Rockstar London
* Rockstar New England
* Rockstar North
* Rockstar San Diego
* Rockstar Toronto
* Rockstar Vancouver
* Rockstar Vienna

## Technology

### RAGE

Main article: Rockstar Advanced Game Engine

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

Main article: Rockstar Games Social Club

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