video game industry predecessor bmg interactive founded december 1998 ; 17 years ago 1998 12 founders sam houser terry donovan jamie king dan houser headquarters new york city new york u.s. key people sam houser president & ceo dan houser vice president parent take two interactive website rockstargames.com rockstar games inc. is a multinational video game developer and publisher best known for their grand theft auto red dead midnight club max payne the warriors bully and manhunt games . based in new york city it was set up by take two interactive in december 1998 as successor to the recently acquired british video game publisher bmg interactive a division of bmg entertainment from bertelsmann . 1 while some of the studios take two interactive has acquired have been merged into the rockstar brand several other recent ones have retained their previous identities and have become part of take two s 2k games division . contents 1 history 2 company philosophy 3 video games published 4 external developers and publisher 5 films 6 structure 6.1 current studios 6.2 former studios 7 technology 7.1 rage 7.2 social club 8 references 9 external links history edit the rockstar games label was founded in december 1998 2 3 4 by the british video game producers terry donovan sam houser dan houser jamie king and gary foreman . 5 6 donovan left the company in january 2007 following a four month leave of absence . 7 he was replaced by former capcom managing director gary dale . 8 the main headquarters of rockstar games commonly referred to as rockstar nyc 9 is 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 . 10 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 220 million as of september 2015 . 11 12 in march 2014 rockstar games received the bafta academy fellowship award at the british academy video games awards . company philosophy edit 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 . 13 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 . 14 rockstar has since released an enhanced remake of grand theft auto v for microsoft windows playstation 4 and xbox one which can be fully played from the first person perspective . 15 this was made possible in part with higher quality firearm visuals hindered audio visual stimuli due to headgear and additional animations helping the game achieve aesthetic parity with other first person shooters . 15 video games published edit title release year s developer s grand theft auto series 1997 present rockstar north a main titles digital eclipse advance rockstar leeds stories and chinatown wars smuggler s run series 2000 2002 rockstar san diego b rebellion developments gba version of smuggler s run midnight club series 2000 2008 rockstar san diego rebellion developments gba version of street racing rockstar leeds psp version of midnight club 3 dub edition rockstar london psp version of los angeles oni 2001 bungie pc version rockstar toronto ps2 version max payne series 2001 present remedy entertainment max payne and max payne 2 rockstar studios c max payne 3 manhunt series 2003 2007 rockstar north manhunt rockstar london d pc and ps2 versions of manhunt 2 rockstar leeds psp version of manhunt 2 rockstar toronto wii version of manhunt 2 red dead series 2004 present rockstar san diego the warriors 2005 rockstar toronto ps2 and xbox versions rockstar leeds psp version bully 2006 rockstar vancouver rockstar new england scholarship edition rockstar games presents table tennis 2006 rockstar san diego beaterator 2009 rockstar leeds l.a. noire 2011 team bondi external developers and publisher edit main article list of take two interactive video games capcom had early development in red dead revolver and previously owned the japanese distribution rights to the grand theft auto franchise . bungie west developed the game oni for windows and macintosh which was then ported by rockstar to the ps2 and published by them . before bungie was bought by microsoft their breakthrough product halo was planned for release on video game consoles with rockstar as publisher . 17 the smuggler s run games developed by angel studios later rockstar san diego are published by rockstar . remedy entertainment developed max payne and max payne 2 the fall of max payne . team bondi an australian independent gaming developer who developed l.a. noire with rockstar . edge of reality developed monster truck madness 64 first published by microsoft and later by rockstar . rockstar was the publisher of the italian job video game . wild metal country published by gremlin interactive and later by rockstar . z axis developed thrasher presents skate and destroy and rockstar published it . vis entertainment in collaboration with dubtitled entertainment is known for developing the first state of emergency game which was rockstar published . digital eclipse software collaborated with rockstar north while developing grand theft auto advance . war drum studios ported a number of rockstar titles to mobile platforms such as grand theft auto iii 18 grand theft auto vice city grand theft auto san andreas grand theft auto chinatown wars and max payne . 19 they also ported grand theft auto san andreas to the xbox 360 . image metrics has done most of the facial animation in many of rockstar s games . films edit films release genre the football factory1 2004 drama grand theft auto san andreas the introduction 2004 crime drama sunday driver1 2005 documentary red dead redemption the man from blackwater 2010 western drama notes rockstar games are credited as executive producers in 2011 rockstar games trademarked rockstar films . 20 structure edit current studios edit logo name location years notes rockstar india bangalore india 2016 present formerly known as technicolor india . 21 rockstar leeds leeds england 2004 present they created chinatown wars beaterator liberty city stories and vice city stories . ported max payne to the game boy advance and l.a. noire to microsoft windows . rockstar lincoln lincoln england 1999 present quality assurance and localisation responsible for games testing and translating games developed by rockstar games.they also developed game boy color videogame las vegas cool hand . rockstar london london england 2005 present formed in november 2005 for the development of manhunt 2 . responsible for the portable adaptation of midnight club los angeles . rockstar new england andover massachusetts 2008 present responsible for the wii xbox 360 pc ports of bully . 22 rockstar north edinburgh scotland 1999 present founded in 1987 as dma design and subsequently acquired in 1999 23 they are famous for the grand theft auto and manhunt franchises as well as the original lemmings games as dma design . rockstar san diego carlsbad california 2003 present as part of rockstar they developed the rage engine rockstar s table tennis the midnight club series both red dead revolver and red dead redemption . rockstar toronto oakville ontario 1999 present their most well known work is the warriors an adaptation of the cult classic film and the pc version of grand theft auto iv and episodes from liberty city . former studios edit logo name location years as rockstar studio notes rockstar japan tokyo japan 2005 formally a label created between rockstar and capcom who previously held exclusive distribution rights to the grand theft auto series in japan . rockstar vancouver vancouver british columbia 2002 2012 merged with rockstar toronto in 2012 . responsible for the playstation 2 title bully and the third game in the max payne series max payne 3 . 24 rockstar vienna vienna austria 2003 2006 they ported the max payne series to consoles and created some of manhunt 2 before being closed down . 25 technology edit rage edit main article rockstar advanced game engine rockstar games have developed their own game engine called the rockstar advanced game engine rage to facilitate game development on the playstation 3 playstation 4 xbox 360 xbox one windows mac e and wii systems . social club edit main article rockstar games social club the rockstar games social club is an online gaming service created by rockstar for use with their games . references edit notes first two main titles developed as dma design . as angel studios . rockstar studios is a collaborative effort between rockstar vancouver rockstar london rockstar toronto rockstar new england rockstar san diego rockstar leeds rockstar north rockstar nyc and rockstar lincoln . 16 rockstar vienna started developing manhunt 2 for pc and ps2 until the studio s closure in 2006 then the videogame moved to rockstar london . the osx version of max payne 3 uses transgaming s cider compatibility layer and does not run natively on osx . footnotes rockstar games multimedia designers . retrieved march 24 2013 . rockstar games design designer information . design museum . september 20 2014 . archived from the original on september 20 2014 . retrieved march 17 2016 . develop . develop magazine . august 15 2008 . retrieved march 17 2016 . rockstar games corporate info . retrieved march 24 2013 . gta rockstar co founding brothers squeeze into britain s 1 000 richest people list with 90 million . gamespot . laura avery 2005 . newsmakers the people behind today s headlines 2004 cumulation . gale research . p. 212 . sinclair brendan january 12 2007 . terry donovan leaves rockstar . gamespot . cbs interactive . retrieved february 14 2016 . capcom exec leaves to join rockstar . gamespot . rockstar nyc job openings . rockstar games . retrieved april 5 2013 . rockstar studios information . rockstar universe . retrieved december 11 2014 . rockstar titles have now shipped 250 million copies to date . gamespot . february 4 2014 . retrieved february 7 2014 . grand theft auto series passes 220 million sales worldwide . gamespot . august 21 2015 . retrieved april 25 2016 . ryan p. may 18 2012 . gaming gods dan and sam houser . the gamer s hub . retrieved march 19 2013 . ivan tom . rockstar deliberately avoiding fps genre . computerandvideogames . a b krupa daniel november 4 2014 . grand theft auto 5 a new perspective . ign . ziff davis . archived from the original on november 4 2014 . retrieved november 4 2014 . rockstar studios may 15 2012 . max payne 3