Rockstar Toronto | |
Formerly |
|
Type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Video games |
Founded | Early 1980s |
Headquarters | , Canada |
Key people | Kevin Hoare (studio director) |
Parent |
|
Rockstar Games Toronto ULC (trade name: Rockstar Toronto; formerly Imagexcel, Alternative Reality Technologies, and Rockstar Canada) is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Oakville, Ontario. The company was established as Imagexcel in the early 1980s and developed more than fifteen games under that name, including Quarantine , which was published by GameTek in 1994. The publisher bought the studio's assets through its Alternative Reality Technologies subsidiary in March 1995 and then sold Alternative Reality Technologies to Take-Two Interactive in July 1997. The studio became part of Take-Two's Rockstar Games label as Rockstar Canada in 1999 and was renamed Rockstar Toronto in 2002 when Take-Two acquired Rockstar Vancouver. Under Rockstar Games, the studio developed the 2005 game The Warriors , based on the 1979 film of the same name, as well as several ports, including the Windows versions of Grand Theft Auto IV , Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City , Max Payne 3 , and Grand Theft Auto V . In July 2012, Rockstar Vancouver was merged into Rockstar Toronto, which then moved into larger offices.
Rockstar Toronto was established as Imagexcel in the early 1980s, "before the time of He-Man". [1] [2] The studio developed roughly fifteen games across multiple systems until 1995. [1] It began developing a proprietary game engine in 1993, as well as a complementary game in collaboration with GameTek in December that year. Rod Humble, as GameTek's executive producer, initially wrote a script titled Bloods that revolved around gang warfare. When the company sent a revision thereof to Imagexcel, the studio reworked the concept into what became Quarantine . Humble considered the new version a "far surperior game". [3] In October 1994, Imagexcel comprised programmer and managing partner Kevin Hoare, programmers Ed Zolnieryk and Andy Brownbill, and artists Greg Bick and Ray Larabie. [1] [3] GameTek released the game in the same month. [3] On 9 March 1995, the publisher announced its acquisition of Imagexcel's assets through a newly founded subsidiary, Alternative Reality Technologies. The transaction included Quarantine's engine, which GameTek intended to use in other games. Hoare, Zolnieryk, Bick, and Larabie formed the core of GameTek's Canadian development operations. [1] [4] After the acquisition, the studio was also referred to as GameTek Canada. [5]
Take-Two Interactive bought several assets from GameTek in July 1997, including Alternative Reality Technologies, GameTek's European offices, and distribution rights for games including Dark Colony . [6] The Alternative Reality Technologies team became part of Take-Two's Rockstar Games label in 1999 as Rockstar Canada. [7] The studio then created two expansion packs for the 1997 game Grand Theft Auto : London 1969 and London 1961 , both released in 1999. [8] It developed ports of Rockstar Games' Oni and Max Payne for the PlayStation 2 that were released in 2001. [9] [10] When Take-Two acquired Barking Dog Studios and renamed it Rockstar Vancouver in August 2002, Rockstar Canada was renamed Rockstar Toronto to avert confusion between the two. [11] At the same time, Take-Two announced that Rockstar Toronto was working on a video game adaptation of the 1979 film The Warriors . [12] The eponymous game was first shown at E3 2005 before being released in October that year. [13] [14] A spiritual successor, internally known as We Are the Mods, was planned at the time. [15] [16] After The Warriors, Rockstar Toronto developed further ports: It brought Manhunt 2 and Bully: Scholarship Edition to the Wii, [17] [18] and Grand Theft Auto IV , Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City , and Max Payne 3 to Windows. [19] [20]
In July 2012, Rockstar Games announced Rockstar Toronto would be moving into larger, custom-built offices within Oakville, Ontario. Rockstar Vancouver was merged into Rockstar Toronto and the former's thirty-five employees were given the option to relocate to Rockstar Toronto or any other Rockstar Games studio. [21] [22] The Government of Ontario contributed CA$2 million to this expansion. [23] Jennifer Kolbe, Rockstar Games' vice-president of publishing and operations, stated creating a single Canadian team that would "make for a powerful creative force on future projects", while making room for fifty new positions at the studio. [24] [25] In November 2012, Rockstar Toronto's legal entity, Rockstar Toronto Inc., was transitioned from Ontario to British Columbia as Rockstar Games Toronto Inc. and then transformed to Rockstar Games Toronto ULC, an unlimited liability corporation. [26] [27]
Rockstar Toronto later ported Grand Theft Auto V to Windows. This version was initially scheduled to be released alongside the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions in 2014. The port was delayed to April 2015, which the studio attributed to optimizations and the integration of a built-in video editor, which is exclusive to this release. Rockstar Games referred to the Windows port as the game's "ultimate" edition. [28] [29] On 24 December 2020, CA$66,000 worth of newly delivered computer equipment and accessories were stolen from Rockstar Toronto's offices. The incident was the first in a string of robberies in Oakville that continued until 23 January 2021. The suspect, a 30-year-old woman, was arrested on 25 January. [30] [31]
Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1988 | Techno Cop | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Sega Genesis, ZX Spectrum | Gremlin Graphics, U.S. Gold, RazorSoft | Co-developed with Gray Matter |
1990 | The Ultimate Ride | Amiga, Atari ST | Mindscape | Co-developed with Gray Matter |
1994 | Quarantine | 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, MS-DOS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn | GameTek | |
1996 | Quarantine II: Road Warrior | MS-DOS | Mindscape, GameTek | |
1997 | Dark Colony | Classic Mac OS, Windows | Strategic Simulations | |
1999 | Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 | MS-DOS, PlayStation, Windows | Rockstar Games | |
Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 | MS-DOS, Windows | |||
2001 | Oni | PlayStation 2 | Port development | |
Max Payne | Port development | |||
2005 | The Warriors | PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox | ||
2007 | Manhunt 2 | Wii | Port development | |
2008 | Bully: Scholarship Edition | Port development | ||
Grand Theft Auto IV | Windows | Port development | ||
2010 | Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City | Port development | ||
2012 | Max Payne 3 | Port development | ||
2015 | Grand Theft Auto V | Port development | ||
2018 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One | Developed as part of Rockstar Studios |
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993.
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, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Founding members of the company were Terry Donovan, Gary Foreman, Dan and Sam Houser, and Jamie King, who worked for Take-Two at the time, and of which the Houser brothers were previously executives at BMG Interactive. Sam Houser heads the studio as president.
Rockstar North Limited is a British video game development company and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Edinburgh. The company was founded as DMA Design in Dundee in 1987 by David Jones, soon hiring former classmates Mike Dailly, Russell Kay, and Steve Hammond. During its early years, DMA Design was backed by its publisher Psygnosis, primarily focusing on Amiga, Atari ST and Commodore 64 games. During this time, they created successful shooters such as Menace, and Blood Money, but soon turned to platform games after the release of Lemmings in 1991, which was an international success and led to several sequels and spin-offs. After developing Unirally for Nintendo, DMA Design was set to become one of their main second-party developers, but this partnership ended after Nintendo's disapproval of Body Harvest.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the fifth main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and the seventh installment overall. It was released in October 2004 for the PlayStation 2, in June 2005 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox, and in November 2010 for Mac OS X. The game is set within an open world environment that players can explore and interact with at their leisure. The story follows Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns home following his mother's murder and is drawn back into his former gang and a life of crime while clashing with corrupt authorities and powerful criminals. Carl's journey takes him across the fictional U.S. state of San Andreas, which is based on California and Nevada and encompasses three major cities: Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas.
Rockstar Leeds Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Leeds. Ian J. Bowden, Dave Box, Gordon Hall, and Jason McGann founded the company as Möbius Entertainment in December 1997 after working together at the studio Hookstone. Möbius worked with SCi on two games: Alfred's Adventure, a remake of the Twilight-developed Alfred Chicken, and the cancelled Titanium Angels. From 2001 on, the studio created Game Boy Advance games for several publishers, including multiple for The 3DO Company and Max Payne for Rockstar Games.
Rockstar San Diego, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Carlsbad, California. The studio is best known for developing the Midnight Club and Red Dead series.
Jeffrey Crawford "Lazlow" Jones is an American writer, producer, director, voice actor, and radio personality. He is best known for his work with Rockstar Games, for which he worked on the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Red Dead Redemption series, and for his radio shows Technofile and The Lazlow Show.
Bully is an action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar Vancouver and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 17 October 2006 for the PlayStation 2. A remastered version of the game, subtitled Scholarship Edition, was developed by Mad Doc Software and released on 4 March 2008 for Xbox 360 and Wii, and on 21 October 2008 for Windows. Bully was re-released for PlayStation 4 available via PlayStation Network on 22 March 2016. An updated version of the Scholarship Edition, titled Anniversary Edition, was developed by War Drum Studios and released for Android and iOS on 8 December 2016.
Sam Houser is a British video game producer. He is the co-founder and president of Rockstar Games and one of the creative driving forces behind the games in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, being producer since the third game.
Rockstar Productions GmbH was an Austrian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Vienna. Peter Baustädter, Niki Laber, and Hannes Seifert founded the studio as Neo Software in January 1993 when they neared the completion of Whale's Voyage. The game led Neo Software to early success, as did 1994's The Clue!, which sold over a million copies, and enabled the company to relocate from Seifert's house in Hirtenberg to Vienna. After Neo Software's Alien Nations sold more than a million copies in 1999, Computec Media acquired a majority stake in the company, seeking it to produce online games. It then sold the studio and several other businesses to Gameplay.com in February 2000, which sold Neo Software to Take-Two Interactive in January 2001 in exchange for a Take-Two subsidiary Gameplay.com had obtained earlier.
Rockstar New England, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Andover, Massachusetts. Ian Lane Davis founded the company as Mad Doc Software in November 1999 after working as technical director for Activision. The studio worked with Activision on Star Trek: Armada before leading the development of its sequel, Star Trek: Armada II. From 2002 on, Mad Doc was the principal developer of the Empire Earth series, developing two games and two expansions. While the successful Empire Earth II landed the company publishing contracts with Rockstar Games and Bethesda Softworks, Empire Earth III was a critical and commercial failure and led to an end for the series. Mad Doc developed Star Trek: Legacy for Bethesda Softworks and Bully: Scholarship Edition for Rockstar Games. After the latter was released in March 2008, Rockstar Games' parent company, Take-Two Interactive, bought Mad Doc and made it part of Rockstar Games as Rockstar New England. Under Rockstar Games, the studio worked on a sequel to Bully until its developers were reallocated to projects like Max Payne 3.
Rockstar Vancouver Inc. was a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Vancouver. The studio is best known for developing Bully (2006).
The Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is a proprietary game engine developed by RAGE Technology Group, a division of Rockstar Games' Rockstar San Diego studio. Since its first game, Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis in 2006, released for the Xbox 360 and Wii, the engine has been used by Rockstar Games' internal studios to develop advanced open world games for consoles and computers.
Rockstar Lincoln Limited is a British video game developer based in North Hykeham. It is the quality assurance and localisation studio of Rockstar Games. Steve Marsden and David Cooke founded the company as Spidersoft in May 1992. Initially, it primarily developed Game Boy and Game Gear ports of various titles, including pinball video games for publisher 21st Century Entertainment, which acquired Spidersoft in 1995. After 21st Century Entertainment shut down in March 1998, Take-Two Interactive acquired Spidersoft in June that year and renamed it Tarantula Studios. The studio continued working on Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, such as Grand Theft Auto (1999). In 2002, the development portion of Tarantula Studios was shut down and the quality assurance portion was integrated into Take-Two's Rockstar Games label as Rockstar Lincoln.
Daniel Houser is an English video game producer and writer, and a co-founder and former vice president of creativity for Rockstar Games. As well as producing video games, Houser was the head writer for Rockstar Games, being the lead for Bully (2006), Red Dead Redemption (2010) and Max Payne 3 (2012). He has also written, or co-written, almost all of the titles in the Grand Theft Auto series.
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Grand Theft Auto V is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV, and the fifteenth instalment overall. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, the single-player story follows three protagonists—retired bank robber Michael De Santa, street gangster Franklin Clinton, and drug dealer and gunrunner Trevor Philips—and their attempts to commit heists while under pressure from a corrupt government agency and powerful criminals. The open world design lets players freely roam San Andreas's open countryside and the fictional city of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles.
Navid Khonsari is an Iranian - Canadian video game, virtual/mixed reality, film and graphic novel creator, writer, director and producer.
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Rockstar Games Canada has been in the videogame busines for more than several years ; Since before the time of He-Man™.
The team responsible for the cult classics Road Warrior and Quarantine joined the Rockstar family in 1999.