 | |
| Rockstar Vienna(2003–2006) | |
| Formerly | Neo Software Produktions GmbH(1993–2003) |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 4 January 1993; 32 years ago (1993-01-04) inHirtenberg, Austria |
| Founders |
|
| Defunct | 11 May 2006 (2006-05-11) |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Headquarters | , Austria |
Key people |
|
Number of employees | 110 (2006) |
| Parent |
|
Rockstar Vienna (Rockstar Productions GmbH; formerlyNeo Software Produktions GmbH) was an Austrianvideo game developer and a studio ofRockstar Games based inVienna. Peter Baustädter, Niki Laber, and Hannes Seifert founded the studio as Neo Software in January 1993 as they neared the completion ofWhale's Voyage. The game led Neo Software to early success, as did 1994'sThe Clue!, which sold over a million copies, and enabled the company to relocate from Seifert's house inHirtenberg to offices in Vienna. After Neo Software'sAlien Nations sold more than a million copies in 1999,Computec Media acquired amajority stake in the company, seeking it to produce online games. It then sold the studio and several other businesses toGameplay.com in February 2000, which sold Neo Software toTake-Two Interactive in January 2001 as part of a subsidiary exchange.
Under Take-Two, Neo Software mostly developedports, starting withMax Payne for theXbox. The studio was integrated with Take-Two's Rockstar Games label in January 2003 as Rockstar Vienna, bringing itsMax Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne,Grand Theft Auto III, andGrand Theft Auto: Vice City to consoles. The studio worked onManhunt 2 from January 2004 until May 2006, when the company was abruptly closed in acost reduction. Rockstar Vienna had become the largest developer in Austria by that time, and its disestablishment left 110 people out of work.Manhunt 2 was completed atRockstar London, omitting all Rockstar Vienna credits upon release.
Rockstar Vienna was founded as Neo Software by Peter Baustädter, Niki Laber, and Hannes Seifert. Laber and Seifert had met asfreelancers at a computer school, where they quickly decided to work on video games.[1] Seifert's 1989 gameDer verlassene Planet (lit. 'The Abandoned Planet') was the first commercial video game release from Austria.[2] After five years of independent work in thevideo game industry, Baustädter, Laber, and Seifert were nearing the completion ofWhale's Voyage. While meeting at a coffeehouse nearWien Westbahnhof railway station, they decided to build a company around the game, establishing Neo Software on 4 January 1993.[1][3] Its offices were set up in Seifert's house inHirtenberg, a small village south ofVienna.[3] Laber and Seifert became the jointmanaging directors.[4]Flair Software releasedWhale's Voyage in February 1993.[5][6] The game's success allowed Neo Software to begin moving to the Business Park Vienna in 1994, which made it easier to hire international employees.[7]The Clue!, released later that year, became the company's first game to sell more than 1 million copies, accelerating the relocation.[1][7]
In the following two years, Neo Software worked onPrototype,Dark Universe,Whale's Voyage II, andCedric (all released in 1995),[8] as well asMutation of J.B.,Spherical Worlds,Black Viper, andFightin' Spirit (all 1996). During 1996, the company discontinued its publishing activities and established a consulting branch, Neo Consulting.[9] By 1997, Baustädter had left the company forDigital Domain while remaining ashareholder.[4] While developingRent-a-Hero in 1997, Neo Software's first year without a release, the company underwent structural changes to improve its development capabilities and strengthened relationships with publishers for future releases.Rent-a-Hero was released in 1998.[10] The studio worked with the nascent Austrian companyJoWooD to releaseAlien Nations in 1999, which sold over 1 million copies.[1][11]
Computec Media, a German media company that produced magazines and online games, announced on 1 June 1999 that it had agreed to purchase a 51%majority stake in Neo Software, citing the success ofRent-a-Hero andAlien Nations as a motive. The deal was to close by the end of the year, with the studio to receive Computec Mediashares worthDM 2 million. The company expected Neo Software and its 11 employees to develop two online games and generateDM 7 million in revenue each year.[12] However, it proceeded to sell off Neo Software, alongside three other subsidiaries, toGameplay.com in February 2000 for£11.8 million in cash and£35.8 million in Gameplay.com shares.[13] Under its new owner, Neo Software had commenced work on theSid Meier's Pirates! spin-offOnline Pirates (orPirates! Online) by September that year.[14][15] In October, Gameplay.com acquired Toga Holdings, the parent of Pixel Broadband Studios, fromTake-Two Interactive. Alongside paying cash and shares, Gameplay.com entered into a "joint exploitation agreement" that allowed Take-Two to purchase Neo Software. The studio's valuation ofUS$17.3 million was pre-paid in this transaction.[16] Take-Two completed its acquisition of Neo Software on 31 January 2001, paying a nominal£1 and assuming$808,000 inliabilities.[16][17] The company envisioned the studio to produceGerman localisations in addition to developing games.[18]
Later in 2001, JoWooD published Neo Software's sequel toThe Clue!,The Sting!.[19] As part of Take-Two, Neo Software developed theXbox port ofMax Payne, which was released in December 2001.[20]Online Pirates was still in development in late 2002. At the time, Seifert commented that Neo Software, which now had 40 employees, saw online games as a "market of the future". However, he lamented that the lack of widespreadbroadband connections in households at the time made games likeOnline Pirates unviable as mass-market products.[15] On Neo Software's tenth anniversary in January 2003, Take-Two integrated the studio with theRockstar Games label as Rockstar Vienna.[11][21] The legal entity, Neo Software Produktions GmbH, was consequently renamed Rockstar Productions GmbH.[22] The studio continued developing ports, bringingMax Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne to the Xbox andPlayStation 2, as well asGrand Theft Auto III andGrand Theft Auto: Vice City to the Xbox.[23]
In January 2004, Rockstar Vienna began work on what would becomeManhunt 2, the sequel to 2003'sManhunt.[24] On the morning of 11 May 2006, Take-Two closed down Rockstar Vienna's facilities and fired all employees without prior notice. In a blog post, Rockstar Viennadesigner Jurie Horneman described how he arrived at the studio to work, only to be turned away by security guards.[25] With 110 employees before the closure, Rockstar Vienna had been the largest video game developer in Austria.[1][26] The move was described as acost cutting exercise: Rockstar Games had too many studios and its expenses were too high, and the decision to close Rockstar Vienna was made easier because it was its only studio in a non-English-speaking country.[1] Rockstar Games stated that employees were "offered packages in accordance with Austrian law, as well as other job opportunities within Take-Two and Rockstar Games where possible".[25] Laber later described the closure as "completely fair", noting that theseverance packages far exceeded the legal minimum.[1]
The development ofManhunt 2 was shifted toRockstar London and the game was released in October 2007.[24][27] Following the release, Horneman, who had been aproducer for the game while at Rockstar Vienna, noticed that the game's credits lacked all names of the Rockstar Vienna employees who had worked on the game before the studio's closure. In a blog post listing all 89 missing credits, he stated that "the majority of the work we did at Rockstar Vienna is in the released game. Rearranged and modified, but it's there."[28][29] He added that he was "disappointed and outraged that Rockstar Games tries to pretend that Rockstar Vienna and the work we did onManhunt 2 never happened – the work of over 50 people, who put years of their lives into the project, trying to make the best game they could".[30]
Rockstar Vienna's demise prompted the creation of many smaller studios in the Vienna area.[31] In January 2007, Seifert and Laber, as well as Jürgen Goeldner, announced the formation of Games That Matter.[32][33] By the end of that month, the studio mostly comprised former Rockstar Vienna staff.[34]Koch Media bought the studio in August 2007 and incorporated it into theDeep Silver label as Deep Silver Vienna.[35] It was Koch Media's first acquisition of a development studio.[36] Deep Silver Vienna's first game wasCursed Mountain, developed in association withSproing Interactive and released for theWii in 2009.[37] Laber left the studio in December 2009 and Seifert announced his intent to leave the company by 31 January 2010.[38][39] On that day, Koch Media disestablished Deep Silver Vienna and laid off its 20 employees, citing that it was necessary to concentrate its operations at itsMunich headquarters in the face of the "overall economic situation".[38][40] The project it had in development at the time,Ride to Hell, was handed toEutechnyx.[41] Seifert later acted as thestudio head forIO Interactive from 2010 until February 2017, while Laber joined Socialspiel, a Viennesesocial network game company founded by former Rockstar Vienna and Deep Silver Vienna staff, in August 2012.[42][43]
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Whale's Voyage | Amiga,Amiga CD32,MS-DOS | Flair Software | |
| 1994 | The Clue! | Kompart UK,Max Design | Co-developed with And Avoid Panic by[4] | |
| 1995 | Prototype | MS-DOS | Max Design | Co-developed with Surprise! Productions[44] |
| Dark Universe | Co-developed with Martin[4] | |||
| Whale's Voyage II | Amiga, Amiga CD32, MS-DOS | Neo Software | ||
| Cedric | Amiga | Co-developed with Alcatraz[45] | ||
| 1996 | Mutation of J.B. | MS-DOS | Co-developed with Invention[4] | |
| Spherical Worlds | Amiga | Co-developed with 4-Matted[4] | ||
| Black Viper | Amiga, Amiga CD32 | Co-developed with Lightshock Software[4] | ||
| Fightin' Spirit | Co-developed with Lightshock Software[4] | |||
| 1998 | Rent-a-Hero | Windows | THQ, Magic Bytes | |
| 1999 | Alien Nations | JoWooD | ||
| 2001 | The Sting! | |||
| Max Payne | Xbox | Rockstar Games | Port development |
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne | PlayStation 2, Xbox | Rockstar Games | Port development |
| Grand Theft Auto III | Xbox | Port development | ||
| Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | Port development | |||
| 2007 | Manhunt 2 | PlayStation 2,PlayStation Portable, Wii, Windows | Development completed byRockstar London |
| 2K |
|  | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rockstar Games |
| |||||||||
| Zynga |
| |||||||||
| Other | ||||||||||
| Former labels | ||||||||||