 | |
 Headquarters at Barclay House, Edinburgh | |
| Rockstar North | |
| Formerly |
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| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1988; 37 years ago (1988) inDundee, Scotland |
| Founder | David Jones |
| Headquarters | , Scotland |
Key people | Andrew Semple(studio director) |
| Products |
|
Number of employees | 650 (2018) |
| Parent |
|
| Website | rockstarnorth.com |
Rockstar North (Rockstar Games UK Limited; formerlyDMA Design Limited) is a Britishvideo game developer and a studio ofRockstar Games based inEdinburgh. The studio is best known for creating theLemmings andGrand Theft Auto series, includingGrand Theft Auto V, thesecond-best-selling game and most profitable entertainment product of all time.
David Jones founded the company as DMA Design in 1988 in his hometown ofDundee. During his studies, he had developed the gameMenace and struck a six-game publishing deal withPsygnosis, which released Jones's project in October 1988. While making its sequel,Blood Money, Jones dropped out, hired several of his friends, includingMike Dailly, Steve Hammond, and Russell Kay, with whom he had attended the Kingsway Amateur Computer Club. They opened the company's first offices above a formerfish and chip shop in 1989. Following the successful 1991 release ofLemmings, the studio rapidly expanded and moved into proper offices, after which Kay left to establishVisual Sciences. SeveralLemmings expansions and sequels later, 1994'sAll New World of Lemmings was DMA Design's final game in the series and its last with Psygnosis.
After many halted projects from partnerships withNintendo andBMG Interactive, Jones sold the financially stricken studio toGremlin Interactive in April 1997. The subsequentspin-off of DMA Design's American satellite studio triggered Hammond's departure. While the commercially successful release ofGrand Theft Auto ledTake-Two Interactive to buy the game'sintellectual property and form Rockstar Games in 1998,Body Harvest's underperformance later that year saw Gremlin Interactive being taken over byInfogrames. In September 1999, Infogrames sold DMA Design to Take-Two, enabling a close collaboration with Rockstar Games to releaseGrand Theft Auto 2. Amid these changes, Dailly left for Visual Sciences, while Jones foundedDenki andReal Time Worlds.
A few months after an Edinburgh branch was established for DMA Design, the prior Dundee location was closed.Grand Theft Auto III, the firstGrand Theft Auto game presented fully in 3D, was released in 2001 and sold 6 million units in one year. Considered genre-defining, the game gave rise to a number ofGrand Theft Auto clones. Take-Two integrated DMA Design with Rockstar Games as Rockstar Studios in March 2002, which was renamed Rockstar North in May. Since then, the studio has continued theGrand Theft Auto series withGrand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002),Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004),Grand Theft Auto IV (2008), andGrand Theft Auto V (2013), as well as a number of smaller games in the franchise. Rockstar North also createdManhunt in 2003 and collaborated with other Rockstar Games studios onManhunt 2 (2007),Red Dead Redemption (2010),L.A. Noire (2011),Max Payne 3 (2012), andRed Dead Redemption 2 (2018).
Rockstar North was founded as DMA Design by theDundee nativeDavid Jones. Having frequently playedSpace Invaders in his youth, he gained earlyprogramming knowledge when his secondary school, Linlathen High, obtained anApple II computer and pilotedO-level qualifications incomputer studies.[3][4] In 1983, he took up an apprenticeship at the local plant of the electronics manufacturerTimex. Although the company was best known for producing watches, the Dundee factory also builthome computers forSinclair Research, including theZX81 andZX Spectrum, which had boosted interest in hobbyist programming in the area.[3][5] Timex paid for programming courses at the localKingsway Technical College, which also hosted the Kingsway Amateur Computer Club (KACC).[3][4][6] Jones, the oldest attendee at the KACC, soon befriended Steve Hammond and Russell Kay.[3]Mike Dailly, the youngest participant at 14, joined the club at the recommendation of a friend in 1984 with theCommodore Plus/4 he had received for Christmas.[3][7] The quartet bonded over their shared interest in creating original games instead of playing orcloning existing ones.[3][4]
During their time at the KACC, Dailly and Hammond developedFreek Out for the Commodore Plus/4, which they finished and sold to the publisher Cascade for "a modest fee", while Jones and Kay cooperated onMoonshadow for the ZX Spectrum, which was eventually released asZone Trooper.[3][6] Jones and Dailly also worked onThe Game With No Name.[6] As Sinclair Research's market share dropped significantly during 1986, Timex enacted layoffs in Dundee.[3] Jones accepted avoluntary redundancy for£3,000, a roughly half-year salary that he invested into anAmiga 1000, and subsequently enrolled incomputer science at theDundee Institute of Technology (DIT).[6][8] Hammond also attended the DIT, and all four soon joined its computer club.[9] Because Jones easily passed the course's first year, he had much time to learn to programme for the Amiga and spent one year creating theshoot 'em upCopperCon1.[3] Working out of his parents' bedroom, he provisionally used the moniker "Acme".[6] The game featured graphics by thedemoscene member Tony Smith, with whom he communicated by post, and sounds Dailly and Hammond recorded from aSalamander machine at a localarcade.[3][10]
After courting publishers at thePersonal Computer World Show, Jones initially agreed to a publishing deal withHewson Consultants but, fearing that his game would merely become the Amiga version ofZynaps, he walked away from the agreement.[2][3] Instead, he turned to the nascentPsygnosis in 1987 and agreed to a six-game publishing deal.[2][3]CopperCon1 was renamedDraconia, which was ultimately changed toMenace because the name was too similar to that ofDraconus.[3][11] Jones also agreed to bring Psygnosis'sBallistix from the Amiga to theCommodore 64, for which he engaged Dailly and Hammond.[9][12] In his search for a company name to replace the already taken "Acme", Jones discussed alternatives with the members of the DIT's computer club in 1988.[2][6][9] Among others, "Milliard", "Visual Voyage", and "Alias Smith and Jones" (in reference toMenace's artist) were floated, and Jones finally settled on "DMA Design".[2][3] The abbreviation "DMA" stood for "direct memory access" in Amiga manuals but carried no meaning in the company name.[13] While "Direct Mind Access" was official briefly, Jones eventually began stating that the abbreviation was short for "Doesn't Mean Anything".[2][3][9] He formally founded DMA Design in 1988, when he was 22 years old.[14][15][16][17]
Menace was released in October 1988 after 18 months of development.[20][21] It was DMA Design's debut game and the first game under Psygnosis's Psyclapse label for budget-priced games.[3] Jones only received£0.75 for every copy sold, which he retrospectively viewed as a "terrible" deal. Still, the 20,000 sales allowed him to buy a car and regularly visit the Psygnosis offices to meet other game developers.[3][6] While working on a sequel toMenace, the difficulty of Jones's university programme spiked, leading him to drop out and pursue game development full-time, against the advice of his professors.[3][22] He intended to return after one year but never finished his studies, eventually receiving anhonorary degree.[13][17] Jones hired Dailly, who had just been expelled from college, as the first employee in 1989. Dailly began working on a Commodore 64 conversion ofMenace.[2][3][6] Hammond joined second on a part-time basis as he continued his education, followed shortly by Kay and Brian Watson, one of Jones's university friends.[2][6] TheMenace sequel,Blood Money, was released in April 1989.[23] It sold 40,000 copies.[2][3] Gary Timmons joined the studio shortly after the game was completed, while Dailly developed its Commodore 64 version and began working on aPC Engine port ofShadow of the Beast for Psygnosis.[2][12] DMA Design also madeShadow of the Beast's Commodore 64 port and the PC Engine andMS-DOS versions forBallistix.[2][21]
Jones's father-in-law, the owner of the Dundeefish and chip shop The Deep Sea, lent him a small office space above the shop's former location at 134B Nethergate in Dundee.[18][24] Theinfill building, built in 1893, is sometimes called the Wee Pink Nethergate House.[18] The office was inaugurated on 1 August 1989.[18][24] The studio continued to expand, also hiring many students to work part-time.[3][25] In 1990, DMA Design cancelled several projects: TheGolden Axe-inspiredGore! was shelved due to technical restrictions of the Amiga at the time and theplatformerCutiepoo did not make adequate progress after one year of work by the freelance programmer Tony Colgan.[2][26] Jones further put aside his gameWalker as he found he could not achieve his vision for it and stopped working on the Monster Cartridge, acheat cartridge for the Amiga, after another such product was released first.[2]
Working remotely from Edinburgh, the programmer Ian Dunlop and artist Neill Glancy began to experiment with the technology fromWalker.[3][27] When Dailly learned that they were working with characters just sixteenpixels tall, he challenged himself to create characters that were recognisable at half the height.[3] During one lunch break, he animated a demo of small characters walking in a line and being killed comically, to the amusement of the office. Kay remarked that a game could be created from this. Jones concurred and thought of a design in which the player should prevent the characters from being killed.[3][7] Kay wrote a demo before it was passed on to Dailly and later to Jones, who worked out the gameplay foundations with Timmons.[12] The game was namedLemmings upon Kay's suggestion and released in February 1991.[3][24] It sold 55,000 copies on its first day and was swiftly brought to other regions and platforms.[3][6] Jon Dye, another former KACC attendee, was hired later that year to bring the game to the ZX Spectrum.[28]
Lemmings had 20 million lifetime sales across 21 platforms.[6][29] At 25 years old, Jones became a millionaire and subsequently bought multiple luxury cars.[8][13] The company rapidly expanded and began working on several additional projects.[3] As Psygnosis sought DMA Design to produceLemmingsexpansion packs and sequels in the wake of this success, the studio developedOh No! More Lemmings (1991),Lemmings 2: The Tribes (1993), andAll New World of Lemmings (1994).[2] It also made the Christmas-themedHoliday Lemmings to be distributed for free oncovermounts in 1991 and 1992, before Psygnosis made it a commercial release for 1993 and 1994.[30][31]
By November 1992, DMA Design had grown to 22 staff, including 10 former classmates of Jones, and relocated to proper offices at the Dundee Technology Park.[17] As Kay left DMA Design in 1993 to formVisual Sciences, Jones and Dailly hired Keith Hamilton as a replacement and put him in charge ofAll New World of Lemmings. This entry focused on larger, more detailed lemmings, which Hamilton and Jones later believed diminished the game's charm.[32] In the same year, Psygnosis released the Amiga-exclusiveWalker andHired Guns, which had been created principally by Scott Johnston with a story by Hammond.[33][34]All New World of Lemmings was the final game in Jones's original deal with Psygnosis. With the studio experiencing fatigue fortheLemmings series, Psygnosis hired other developers for subsequent entries, including Kay and Visual Sciences forLemmings Paintball.[2][30][32]
After leavingLemmings behind, DMA Design began researching development for the3DO.[29] In another project, Psygnosis briefly had DMA Designemulate an in-developmentStar Wars game on theSuper Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).[35] During onetrade show, Jones caught the attention ofNintendo with afull-motion videoStar Wars clip running on the SNES, something previously believed impossible.[33][36] At the time, the company was seeking development partners for its upcomingNintendo 64 console, which was then called Project Reality.[32][36] DMA Design signed a two-game contract—worth several million pounds—and joined Nintendo's "Dream Team" of external partners.[36][37] When this partnership was announced in April 1994, DMA Design was only Nintendo's second partner for the platform.[33][38] Using these funds, the studio grew to occupy 2,500 square feet (230 m2) of office space at the Dundee Technology Park and spent around£250,000 outfitting all rooms with high-end devices.[37] The partnership also led DMA Design to cease developing for the 3DO.[29][33] The studio steered clear of other consoles, like thePlayStation andSega Saturn, because Jones disliked "multiformat publishing for the sake of it".[29]
DMA Design's first project for Nintendo wasUnirally, a racing game featuring animatedunicycles created using 2Dsprites rendered from a3D model.[39] Following the game's 1994 release for the SNES, the animation studioPixar sued Nintendo over perceived similarities between the game's characters and the unicycle protagonist from Pixar's 1987 animated short filmRed's Dream.[13][39] The judge ruled in Pixar's favour and the two companies agreed that Nintendo would cease the production ofUnirally copies while Pixar was to receive a Nintendo 64game development kit.[12][39] Despite the ruling, the game sold 300,000 copies.[39] DMA Design continued working with Nintendo onKid Kirby, aspin-off in Nintendo'sKirby franchise made by Colgan after requesting a second chance from Jones.[2] The game featured a young version ofthe title character, who would have been launched around levels using theSuper NES Mouse.[40] In November 1994, a team of five people commenced developingBody Harvest, scheduled to be alaunch title for the Nintendo 64.[33][36]
In the meantime, Dailly was experimenting with ways to render 3D buildings from atop-down perspective. To showcase this technology, he devised a game that saw the player control a dinosaur and destroy the city. After adding cars to make the scene more lively, a colleague suggested having the player drive these cars instead.[41] Jones took notice of Dailly's project and passed it to a team that should turn it into a game.[12] In July 1993, The Liaison and Promotion Company began handling the marketing for DMA Design and its games, and it introduced the studio to potential partners for the project.[42] Jones consequently presented a prototype of the game, which became known asRace'n'Chase, toBMG Interactive, the recently formed games arm ofBertelsmann.[32][37] The two companies signed a£3.4 million contract in March 1995, wherein the studio would develop four games for the publisher.[42][43] According to The Liaison and Promotion Company, Jones had not informed the firm of the impending deal, instead claiming he would partner with another company, such asVirgin Interactive Entertainment. DMA Design and The Liaison and Promotion Company then severed ties just before the deal with BMG Interactive had been finalised, and this became a legal dispute when DMA Design refused to pay the marketing firm.[42]
The publishing agreement with BMG Interactive coveredRace'n'Chase,Space Station Silicon Valley,Tanktics, and thestealth gameCovert.[36] With the acquired funds, DMA Design intended to expand its offices and increase its 40-strong headcount, quickly growing to 130 people.[32][43] The company took over an additional 5,000 square feet (460 m2) of office space and expanded to two adjacent buildings, therein also setting up a£500,000motion capture studio that found little usage.[44][45] Another section housed DMA Music with seven full-time musicians.[29]Race'n'Chase formally began production in March 1995.[46][47] The development team consisted mostly of recent graduates with little development experience, with Hamilton as the lead programmer.[32] As such, the unorganised team struggled with the development untilGary Penn moved from BMG Interactive to DMA Design as the game'screative director andproducer.[46][48] BMG Interactive's production team, including the head of developmentSam Houser, was hands-off during the development.[32][46]
Body Harvest progressed slowly and faced numerous delays, such that it missed its intended launch with the Nintendo 64.[2][36] The production also stalled onKid Kirby and the climbing-themed action gameZenith, and Nintendo cancelled the former following the low sales of the Super NES Mouse.[2][36] Furthermore, the American division of BMG Interactive regularly pushed forRace'n'Chase to be cancelled because the team kept missing development milestones.[32][48] As the studio continued work on multiple games, several staffers believedBody Harvest would be a bigger hit.[46] With DMA Design struggling financially, Jones kept agreeing to game projects solely to receive sign-on bonuses and with no plans to complete them. At one point, the studio had seven or eight projects in development at the same time.[36] In the latter half of 1996,GT Interactive signed with DMA Design forAttack! andClan Wars, despite neither draft having a proper team assigned.[36] Jones also sold the rights toGrand Theft Auto to BMG Interactive to help keep the studio afloat.[32] In November 1996, DMA Design opened a satellite studio inBoulder, Colorado.[49][50] Anthony Harman was installed as the studio's manager, and it had 27 employees by April 1997.[51]
Games will always be here. ... If you do good games, they'll always sell well. What I like is that people are not daft anymore. ... There was a time when you could sell anything in this business. Anything. That was more disappointing – when the business was bigger it was because of that. Times are hard now, making people focus more on quality and innovation which is great.
The development onBody Harvest stalled under the conflicting demands between the Japanese and American branches of Nintendo.[33][36] The team sought to keep up its relationship with Nintendo and caved in to these demands. Despite stark changes to the game's design, Nintendo was dissatisfied with the result and cancelled the game.[36] Still in financial disarray and wanting his company to focus on game development,[32][36] Jones arranged forGremlin Interactive to acquire DMA Design for£4.2 million in April 1997.[14][52] The publisher was impressed with DMA Design's multi-use 3DMAgame engine and wanted the two companies to cooperate onresearch and development.[2] It also expected DMA Design to become profitable within two years of the acquisition.[53] Gremlin Interactive introduced several project management methods—includingMicrosoft Project andGantt charts—that the studio perceived as unnecessary bureaucracy. Additionally, the company made DMA Design finish games as quickly as possible, as opposed to Jones's prior methodology of releasing a game only once it is good.[36] Jones received a 5% stake in Gremlin Interactive and became a member of itsboard of directors.[22][54] He subsequently moved into the creative director role for DMA Design.[2] In May, the studio had 100 employees.[22]
As another result of the acquisition, the Boulder studio wasspun off as a separate company.[1][55] Under Harman's continued leadership, it was renamedDevil's Thumb Entertainment.[50][56] The Boulder studio had been developing aremake ofHired Guns for Psygnosis with Hammond as the writer. Being more passionate about this project thanGrand Theft Auto, he left DMA Design to work on the remake in a freelance position, which he later said he regretted "ever since".[1][55] Devil's Thumb Entertainment also developedMike Piazza's StrikeZone andTides of War for GT Interactive.[57] In March 1999, the studio was acquired and absorbed by the developer VR-1, also based in Boulder.[58][59] TheHired Guns remake was never released.[60]
Two months after DMA Design's acquisition, Gremlin Interactive became apublic company on theLondon Stock Exchange.[14][61] Jones's stake in the company was valued at£55 million at the time.[22] Meanwhile, Bertelsmann had decided to withdraw from thevideo game industry and shut down the American division of BMG Interactive. In its place, the release in North America was licensed to ASC Games.[32] Gremlin Interactive also picked up the rights toBody Harvest and engagedMidway Home Entertainment as the publisher in North America.[2][62] ForTanktics, the North American publishing rights were sold toInterplay Entertainment.[63] DMA Design further negotiated back the rights toAttack! andClan Wars from GT Interactive.[64]
By July 1997, The Liaison and Promotion Company had sued DMA Design for£1.5 million overbreach of contract in relation to the deal with BMG Interactive.Lord Penrose, presiding over the case at theCourt of Session, then opined that the marketing firm had been pivotal in the deal being reached and that DMA Design had taken a "rather cynical action" by excluding it from the negotiations, asserting that the actions did constitute breach of contract.[42] Also in 1997, DMA Design became one of the founding members of the Scottish Game Alliance, alongside Visual Sciences and five other studios.[65] Meanwhile, in November 1997, Jones helped the Dundee Institute of Technology (now called the University of Abertay Dundee) introduce an unprecedented computer games degree. In 1998, DMA Design developed games for agame design course at Dundee College.[1][66]
In the lead-up to the debut ofRace'n'Chase, now renamedGrand Theft Auto, BMG Interactive hired the publicistMax Clifford, who wanted to use controversy to market the game.Baron Campbell of Croy warned of the game at the United Kingdom'sHouse of Lords in May 1997, and severaltabloid newspapers called for it to be banned in the country.[32]Grand Theft Auto was released in November 1997 and, despite mixed reviews, quickly sold 500,000 units and generated£25 million.[67] Visual Sciences developed the PlayStation port forGrand Theft Auto, which was largely programmed by Kay and produced by Houser.[1][32][68] The success diminished the focus on other games, particularlySpace Station Silicon Valley, and a sequel was soon approved.[69][70] Bertelsmann decided to ramp down BMG Interactive to reduce costs. At the same time, the publisherTake-Two Interactive was looking to grow its business and invited Houser to discuss his vision for game development.[69] As a result, Take-Two acquired BMG Interactive, since dormant, for 1.85 millionshares worthUS$14.2 million in March 1998.[69][71] Through the acquisition, Take-Two also obtained theintellectual property ofGrand Theft Auto andSpace Station Silicon Valley, and it published the former's PlayStation version in North America later that year.[32][71]
Houser subsequently moved over to Take-Two as its "vice president of worldwide product development", in charge of internal and external development studios.[69] The company also incrementally purchased all individual publishing rights forGrand Theft Auto from other companies to hold the exclusive rights to the game worldwide.[46]Body Harvest andSpace Station Silicon Valley were released in late 1998 but were scarcely marketed, leading to meagre sales.[36] Houser and some of his former BMG Interactive colleagues joined Take-Two to form theRockstar Games publishing label in December 1998.[46] The newborn company commissioned its internal studio,Rockstar Canada, to develop two expansions for the original game,Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 andGrand Theft Auto: London 1961, which were released in 1999.[46]
In March 1999, the poor sales ofBody Harvest contributed to dire financials at Gremlin Interactive that forced it into a£24 million takeover by the French publisherInfogrames.[14][72] During this year, Dailly left the company to join Kay at Visual Sciences as its head of research and development.[1][12] Under the new ownership, Gremlin Interactive published DMA Design'sWild Metal Country in May andTanktics in June.[73][74] As Infogrames was more conservative and sought to produce child-friendly games, it did not wish to hold on to any assets related toGrand Theft Auto.[5][32] Take-Two Interactive bought DMA Design from the publisher in September 1999 for the nominal price of£1 while assumingUS$12.3 million in debt.[14][75] DMA Design henceforth worked closely with Rockstar Games, which Houser described as a "perfect match".[76] During these ownership and managerial changes, several projects were cancelled, includingAttack!,Grand Theft Auto andWild Metal Country for the Nintendo 64, and anUnreal version for the64DD.[2] At the time of Take-Two's acquisition, DMA Design was working onGTA 3D andGrand Theft Auto: Online Crime World.[77][78]
Grand Theft Auto 2, published by Rockstar Games, was released in October 1999 and quickly sold more than 1 million copies, the first Take-Two game to do so.[79][80] Shortly thereafter, DMA Design established a satellite studio in theLeith area of Edinburgh to house the former teams ofBody Harvest andSpace Station Silicon Valley.[46][81] Among those who relocated there wereLeslie Benzies, Aaron Garbut, and Obbe Vermeij, all of whom had worked onSpace Station Silicon Valley.[32][36] Under the direction of Andrew Semple, the branch launched with 25 people.[82] While the Edinburgh location continued to develop a 3DGrand Theft Auto game, now modelled afterDriver, the Dundee office was working on an expansion forGrand Theft Auto 2 set inMiami, of which the former was ultimately prioritised and becameGrand Theft Auto III.[32] Jones was the last member of the original DMA Design team to work on this game.[2] However, unhappy with his studio's new overseas ownership, he departed the company in early 2000.[2][32] With three other former DMA Design employees, he formed the game studioDenki.[83] In February, alongside an investment in Denki,Rage Software hired Jones to oversee its operations in Scotland.[84] Jones bought out Rage Software's Dundee studio in 2002 to formReal Time Worlds, which went on to hire many past DMA Design staffers.[2][10] Benzies was soon appointed as the studio'sdevelopment director and ultimately became itspresident.[85][86]
Rockstar Games released aDreamcast port ofWild Metal Country, renamedWild Metal, in February 2000.[87] Take-Two encouraged DMA Design to narrow its focus to fewer, larger game projects. Many staffers felt at odds with this shift, as it diminished the prior atmosphere they felt was driven by creativity.[46] The publisher closed the Dundee studio in March 2000, relocating many of the 35 staffers to Edinburgh and laying off the rest.[32][88] The move was to enable a merger between DMA Design, Rockstar Games, and Pixel Broadband Studios under the "Broadband Studios" name.[88] The combined entity would have largely leveraged Pixel Broadband Studios's online game technology.[89][90] Jim Woods, who had become the DMA Design'smanaging director by this time, resigned as he wished to stay in Dundee.[88] The merger was ultimately abandoned, as wasGrand Theft Auto: Online Crime World.[91]
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During the development ofGrand Theft Auto III, DMA Design again expanded rapidly, forming a core team of 20 people and engaging "dozens more" in some capacity.[93] The total team encompassed 60 people.[94] The team retained the focus on a mostly unconstrainedopen world from the prior two games while introducing fully 3D graphics and athird-person view.[93][95][96] With much of the game planned out from the start, the development progressed smoothly, such that it was released for thePlayStation 2 in late 2001.[93] The game sold 6 million copies within one year and more than 15 million in total, exceeding the development team's expectations.[96] It was the best-selling game of 2001 and the second-best in 2002.[93]Grand Theft Auto III's approach to 3D open worlds has been referred to as genre-defining and inspired a number of successful titles, also spawning the category ofGrand Theft Auto clones, which includesThe Simpsons: Hit & Run,True Crime: Streets of LA,Driver 3, andSaints Row.[95][97]
Plans to outfitGrand Theft Auto III with anonline multiplayer component were scrapped in favour of a follow up,Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.[93] Conceptualised as an expansion pack forGrand Theft Auto III, Rockstar Games made it a standalone product as its scope expanded.Vice City reused its predecessor's engine, such that the programmers were not engaged until six months before the end of the production, and lessons learned from the previous development cycle allowed the designers to plan features more efficiently. In the meantime, the programmers worked on bringingGrand Theft Auto III topersonal computers.[96] In March 2002, DMA Design was renamed Rockstar Studios, which Houser described as the studio's "final integration" with Rockstar Games.[85][98] The name was revised to Rockstar North in May.[99]Vice City was completed in one year and released in late 2002.[96] For its work on the game, Rockstar North won the "best in-house development studio" and "creativity" awards at the firstDevelop Industry Excellence Awards in August 2003.[100]
FollowingVice City's release, Rockstar North began work onZ, a zombiesurvival game set on a Scottish island. The game repurposed code fromVice City and was in production for around one month before the concept lost traction at the studio.[101][102] The studio'sManhunt, a stealth game, was released in 2003 after roughly three years in development.[103] Due to its dark tone and focus on realistic violence, it was considered the studio's pet project, and most people at Rockstar Games wanted no part in it.[104] Despite provoking controversy for its graphic depiction of violence, the game sold 1.5 million copies.[105][106] Rockstar North further assistedRockstar Vienna and laterRockstar London in the production of a sequel,Manhunt 2, which entered into production in January 2004.[107][108]
Rockstar North'sGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas was given one year of additional development time overVice City, which allowed the team to rework core parts of the gameplay and visuals.[109] It had a budget of less than$10 million.[110] By the end of the game's production, Rockstar North had relocated to offices on Calton Square in Edinburgh.[81][111]San Andreas was released in October 2004. In four days, the game generated$101 million and sold 2.1 million copies, 45% aboveVice City's initial sales.[112] Alongside several other year-end accolades,San Andreas was named the "game of the year" at the 2004Spike Video Game Awards and 2005Golden Joystick Awards.[113][114]Grand Theft Auto III,Vice City, andSan Andreas were bundled asGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy in 2006.[115] By 2008, they had amassed sales of 14.5 million, 17.5 million, and 21.5 million, respectively.[116]
AfterSan Andreas, Rockstar North began producingGrand Theft Auto IV. At the same time, the studio commenced the production of a stealth game calledAgent (codenamedJimmy in reference toJames Bond). A game with the same name and concept had previously been cancelled at the sister studioRockstar San Diego, and Benzies was interested in furthering the idea. The studio was split evenly between the two projects, althoughGrand Theft Auto IV was soon prioritised overAgent. AlthoughAgent was announced for thePlayStation 3 in 2009, itstrademark wasabandoned in 2018 and the listing was later removed from Rockstar Games's website.[101][102] Meanwhile, Rockstar North worked closely withRockstar Leeds on threeGrand Theft Auto games forhandheld game consoles:Liberty City Stories,Vice City Stories, andChinatown Wars.[117][118][119]
Grand Theft Auto IV's production encompassed 220 people at the studio and 1,000 worldwide. Benzies estimated the budget at$100 million.[120] Upon its April 2008 release,Grand Theft Auto IV broke the record for the highest revenue for a game within one day at$310 million from 3.6 million copies sold.[121] At the 2008 Spike Video Game Awards, the game won "game of the year" and earned Rockstar North a nomination for "best studio".[122][123] The studio continued with two expansion packs—The Lost and Damned andThe Ballad of Gay Tony —which were later bundled asGrand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.[124] In the meantime, the studio contributed to Rockstar San Diego'sRed Dead Redemption in 2010 andTeam Bondi'sL.A. Noire in 2011.[125] ForMax Payne 3 in 2012, Rockstar North assisted a number of other Rockstar Games studios collectively credited as "Rockstar Studios".[126]
Immediately following the completion ofGrand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar North began preliminary work onGrand Theft Auto V.[127] Rockstar North's 360 employees formed the core of a worldwide team of 1,000 staff, including several other Rockstar Games studios.[82] The core development took roughly three years, and the game was released in September 2013.[127] The game broke the records for the best-selling and highest-grossing video game within one day and the fastest entertainment property to reach$1 billion in revenue at three days.[128][129] With continuing sales and the success of its online multiplayer counterpart,Grand Theft Auto Online, the game grossed an estimated$6 billion by 2018, making it the most profitable entertainment product of all time.[130] With 200 million copies sold as of March 2024,Grand Theft Auto V became thesecond-best-selling game ever, adding to the 425 million total sales for the series.[131][132]
In 2014, Rockstar North took over 75,000 square feet (7,000 m2) of office space in Barclay House on Holyrood Road in Edinburgh. The building had been constructed for the previous tenant, the newspaper groupThe Scotsman, in 1999.[133] In the same year, the studio began receivingtax credits from the newly established Video Games Tax Relief system set up by thegovernment of the United Kingdom. According to the investigativethink tank TaxWatch UK, the studio had received£80 million by 2020, 37% of the system's total payout, while having not paid anycorporation tax since 2009.[134][135] In response, Rockstar Games stated that the tax credits had enabled higher investments into the country, whileThe Association for UK Interactive Entertainment reported that the system had brought about a fourfoldreturn on investment for the British economy.[135]
When Benzies went on asabbatical in September 2014, his responsibilities as thestudio head were picked up by Garbut and Rob Nelson, bothart directors for the studio. He did not return, culminating in the announcement of his departure in January 2016.[136] On 12 April 2016, Benzies sued Rockstar Games, Take-Two, Sam Houser, andDan Houser, claiming that the companies had withheld$150 million inroyalty payments following his departure.[137][138] In the suit, he claimed that the Houser brothers had persuaded him to take a six-month sabbatical and fired his son and several friends during this absence.[139] As Benzies tried to return after the planned end of his sabbatical in April 2015, his building access had been disabled and theoffice manager ordered him off the premises.[137] The lawsuit stated that the three "Rockstar Principals"—himself and the Houser brothers—had established ashell corporation toevenly share profits and eventually leave Take-Two. Additionally, Benzies accused Sam Houser of having built a sexually charged culture at Rockstar Games and having ineptly handled thedevelopment ofRed Dead Redemption.[137]
Take-Two quickly filed acounterclaim and described Benzies's claims as "entirely without merit and in many instances downright bizarre".[139][140] The claim asserted that, because Benzies had departed Rockstar North without a good cause, he was not entitled to any additional compensation.[137] TheNew York Supreme Court partially dismissed Benzies's lawsuit in April 2018 because the profit-sharing agreement did not guarantee equal pay for the Rockstar Principals, although he remained entitled to some royalties.[141] Take-Two later accused Benzies ofpoaching employees from Rockstar North for his newer studio, Royal Circus Games, and argued that the company's name and trademark had been deliberately chosen to have consumers confuse the two entities.[142][143] Royal Circus Games was renamedBuild a Rocket Boy in October 2018 and, following a confidentialsettlement, the case was dismissed on 8 February 2019.[143][144]
ForRed Dead Redemption 2, all Rockstar Games studios pooled their resources to act as one team.[145] By the time the game was released in October 2018, Rockstar North had grown to 650 employees.[146] In July 2021, Rockstar North bought Barclay House, where it had become the sole tenant, for£31 million and the adjacent Holyrood Park House, which it had since occupied parts of, for£18.25 million.[147][148] During 2022, the studio grew to occupy an additional 11,577 square feet (1,075.5 m2) of office space in the latter.[149]
Rockstar Games fired 31 studio employees on 30 October 2025, citing public discussion and distribution of confidential information.[150][151][152] TheIndependent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) accused the company ofunion busting, stating these employees were attempting tounionise withlabour organisers onDiscord.[152][153] Alex Marshall, the president of the IWGB, called the firings "the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry".[154] IWGB-organised protests outside the studio started on 6 November and were supported byRoss Greer, the co-leader of theScottish Greens.[155][156] Rockstar Games's next release,Grand Theft Auto VI, was delayed on the same day. Journalists believed the firings did not cause the delay but could lead to missed deadlines,[157][158] and a Rockstar North employee said morale was "at rock bottom".[159][160] The IWGB issuedlegal claims against Rockstar Games on 12 November, citing the company's refusal to meet with the union.[161] More than 200 employees signed a petition demanding the workers' reinstatement, andChristine Jardine, theMember of Parliament forEdinburgh West, criticised the firings during a session of theHouse of Commons.[162][163]
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | Android, Fire OS, iOS, macOS, PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox | Rockstar Games | [96] | |
| 2003 | Manhunt | PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox | [103] | ||
| 2004 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | Android, Fire OS, iOS, macOS, PlayStation 2,PlayStation 3, Windows,Windows Phone, Xbox,Xbox 360 | [109] | ||
| 2005 | Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories | Android, Fire OS, iOS, PlayStation 2,PlayStation Portable | Co-developed withRockstar Leeds | [117] | |
| 2006 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories | PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable | [118] | ||
| 2007 | Manhunt 2 | PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable,Wii, Windows | Supportive development forRockstar London | [108] | |
| 2008 | Grand Theft Auto IV | PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 | [120] | ||
| 2009 | Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned | PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 | [124] | ||
| Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars | Android, Fire OS, iOS,Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable | Co-developed with Rockstar Leeds | [119] | ||
| Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony | PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 | [124] | |||
| 2010 | Red Dead Redemption | Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3,PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360 | Supportive development forRockstar San Diego | [125] | |
| 2011 | L.A. Noire | Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360,Xbox One | Supportive development forTeam Bondi | ||
| 2012 | Max Payne 3 | macOS, PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 | Developed as part ofRockstar Studios | [126] | |
| 2013 | Grand Theft Auto V | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4,PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One,Xbox Series X/S | [127] | ||
| 2018 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | PlayStation 4,Stadia, Windows, Xbox One | [145] | ||
| 2026 | Grand Theft Auto VI | PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | [160] |
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