Rockstar Dundee

**Rockstar Dundee Limited** (formerly **Ruffian Games Limited**) is a British game development company and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Dundee. The studio is best known for developing *Crackdown 2*.

## History

### Early years and *Crackdown 2* (2008-2013)

Gary Liddon, Billy Thomson, and Gareth Noyce founded Rockstar Dundee as Ruffian Games in April 2008. Thomson had led the design for *Crackdown* at Realtime Worlds, while Liddon and Noyce had worked at Xen Group, a technology provider for the game. Thomson associated with Xen Group following *Crackdown*'s 2007 release. Liddon, Thomson, and Noyce assumed the roles of studio head, creative director, and development director, respectively.

The company moved into Dundee-based offices in October 2008 and its formation was announced in January 2009. By this time, the fifteen-person team comprised former developers of *Crackdown*, *Fable II*, *MotoGP*, and the *Grand Theft Auto* series, among them "five or six" who joined from Realtime Worlds. In February, the company hired Stephen Iannetta and Ed Campbell, designers for *Crackdown*, as lead designer and senior designer, respectively. It recruited fifteen further people in May. The headcount grew to 49 by November 2009, partially helped by closures and layoffs affecting other local studios, such as Midway Studios – Newcastle.

By the time of its formation announcement, Ruffian Games had entered into a contract with a "major publisher". Microsoft partnered with the studio for *Crackdown 2*, forgoing Realtime Worlds as it was preoccupied with *APB: All Points Bulletin*. When this deal was rumoured, Realtime Worlds' studio head, Colin MacDonald, stated that his studio was still in talks with Microsoft to develop another *Crackdown* game. He doubted that the publisher "would harm an otherwise fruitful existing development relationship" by partnering with a different developer also based in Dundee. After Ruffian Games was announced as developing *Crackdown 2* in June 2009, David Jones, the chief executive officer for Realtime Worlds, stated that he was "a bit miffed" at Microsoft for handing Ruffian Games the development of the game, as he considered the studio's proximity to Realtime Worlds a threat. In response, Thomson opined that Ruffian Games was capable of creating a proper sequel to *Crackdown* because it had hired talent from every department that worked on the original game.

*Crackdown 2*'s development was quick but difficult: The studio was beset by deadlines it deemed unmanageable and the expectations of fans of the original *Crackdown*. The production lasted just over one year and was described as "intense, exhausting". The resulting game, released in mid-2010, was met by a mixed reception and did not sell well enough that the studio could immediately start working on a third *Crackdown* game. To remain in business, Ruffian Games worked with Microsoft on several games for the Kinect peripheral, including *Kinect Star Wars* and *Nike+ Kinect Training*. Around 2012, the studio created an experimental multiplayer mode for Crytek's *Ryse: Son of Rome*, although this work was not released with the final game. Of several cancelled projects, *Streets of Rage* was a pitch to Sega for a remake of the 1991 game of the same name. The prototype was created by a small team within six to eight weeks but the project went unsigned. A third *Crackdown* game remained implausible as of 2013.

## Games developed

### As Ruffian Games

 2012
 2017
 2019