Background of Rockstar
Based in New York City, owned by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.Started in 1998.Founded by Sam Houser,Terry Donovan,Dan Houser,Jamie King and Gary foreman.
Rockstar is considered to be a global institution- list all of their studios and when they were acquired by Rockstar.
Rock star Japan 2005-present
Rock star Leeds 2004–present Previously known as Mobius Entertainment and based in Lower Wortley, Leeds. They created Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories for the PlayStation Portable, Max Payne for the Game Boy Advance and recently finished developing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and the music game Beaterator. The studio's most recent work is the Microsoft Windows version of L.A. Noire.
Rock star Lincoln 1999–present Quality assurance and localization studio based in Lincoln, United Kingdom, previously known as Tarantula Studios.
Rock star London 2005–present Formed in November 2005. Took over development of Manhunt 2 after Rock star Vienna closed and recently developed the portable adaptation of Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
Rock star New England2008–present Acquired on April 4, 2008, this studio is based in Andover, Massachusetts and was previously known as Mad Doc Software. They developed the Xbox 360 and PC ports of Bully.
Rock star North 1999–present Founded in 1988, Rock star North is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was previously known as DMA Design. They are famous for the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt franchises, as well as the original Lemmings games.
Rock star San Diego 2003–present Previously known as Angel Studios, they developed the RAGE engine, Red Dead Revolver and Red Dead Redemption, the Smuggler's Run series, the first two Midtown Madness games and the Midnight Club series.
Rockstar Toronto 1999–present, previously known as Rock star Canada. Their most well-known work is their adaptation of the cult classic film The Warriors and the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
Rock star Vancouver 2002–present Previously known as Barking Dog Studios, they created the PlayStation 2 title Bully and are currently developing the third game in the Max Payne series, Max Payne 3.
Rock star Vienna2003–2006 previously known as Neo Software; closed on May 11, 2006. They ported the Max Payne series to consoles, and created most of Manhunt 2 before being closed down.
What other titles are Rockstar famous for?
Grand Theft Auto
Max Payne
L.A.Noire
The Warriors
Bully
Manhunt
Midnight Club
Red Dead
What has been their most successful game?
:San Andreas
What controversies have surrounded Rockstar in the past?
Grand Theft Auto:Vice City came under similar criticism,also for implying allegedly racist hate crimes:The game ,taking place in "Vice City"(a fictional Miami)in 1986,involves a gang war between Haitians and Cuban refugees ,and the player often serves both gangs to ploy against one another.Haitian and Cuban anti-defamation groups highly criticized the game for these actions ,including using phrases such as "kill the Haitian idiots"(a phrase used in the game ,referring to Haitian gang with which the character is having a shoot-out.)After the threat of being sued by the Haitian-American Coalition, Rockstar removed the word"Haitians"from this phrase in the game's subtitles.
In June 2005 ,an entire portion of unused code was found within the main script of Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas ,allowing the player to simulate sex with the main character's girlfriends.
What has made them so successful?
They push boundaries via the content of heir games. They try to persuade the player to buy the game using unique and outrageous marketing techniques such as graffiti murals on buildings of characters from the GTA series. This is know as desire creation; it makes the public want to buy the game.
Discuss the development and importance of R.A.G.E
Rockstar advanced games engine.
By having the R.A.G.E it means that Rockstar have vertical integration, it also means that they can get their games produced quicker and to their own time standard,without having to rely on other companies.
R.A.G.E technology group at Rockstar San Diego developed the engine to facilitate game development on Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360,Playstation 3 and Wii.
Discuss the importance of franchises to Rockstar.
Rockstar have a few franchises; Grand Theft Auto being the main one. The franchising is important because it means if the original game is popular, it is giving the fans more versions and newer versions of the game and this increases the revenue stream.
Discuss how Rockstar is an example of vertical integration.
Vertical integration is when a company id entirely in charge of everything to do with their games, development ,publishing and marketing .This means that they are completely in charge of how they want their game to be made, advertised etc.
Why is vertical integration for developers?
Vertical integration is important because it means that they can include all of the things that they want within their game and keep all of the things they don’t want out of it.it also means that there is no outside influence in the game and it is completely as the company wishes it to be.
Discuss the oligopoly of the games industry and the implications of Rockstar.
Oligopoly=a small number of companies that dominate the industry .The main three oligopolys in the gaming industry of Sony,Microsoft and Nintendo .Rockstar need to release their games on a 7th gen console so they must keep the oligopoly’s on their side by making deals(for example, they released L.A.Noire on both platforms so that their revenue streams are maximized. The downside to this is the rockstar could be pressured by one of the companies to only release the game on one platform.)
