The story of the incredible success of a company called Rockstar is waiting for you under the cut.

In the distant (but for some, not) 1998, 5 friends were founded Rockstar games- that's where it all started. As some of you know, Rockstar owns 10 affiliates.

Rockstar north

The oldest of the branches is Rockstar North, which, by the way, is the most famous, because the famous GTA series was developed here.

Rockstar North was founded, which, of course, had a different name at first (the original name was DMA) in 1988, while there was no question of Rockstar at the time. The founders of the studio - David Jones, Russell Kay, Mike Dally and Steve Hammond later explained that these mysterious letters are not an abbreviation, but just a consonant combination. As a joke, the DMA developers once said that the name still has a logical explanation - “Doesn’t Mean Anything”.

In 1988, DMA signed a contract with British publisher Psygnosis and achieved success with their two games, Menace and Blood Money, space shooters that attracted the attention of gamers and critics for their high quality performance. Like all of the company's early games, Menace and Blood Money debuted on the Amiga, but later released ports to the Commodore 64, DOS, and Atari ST.

Screenshot "Menace"

DMA's real breakthrough came in the 1990s with the release of Lemmings, which has a total circulation of over 20 million copies on 21 different systems (from the Amiga to the NES and Apple Macintosh). For the next five years, DMA produced various sequels to the successful Lemmings - Oh h No! More lemmings, Lemmings 2: The Tribes, All New World of Lemmings? two Christmas editions Holiday Lemmings, DMA also released two new games: Walker (a well-received robot shooter) and Hired Guns (first person strategy). In the development of other games based on Lemmings (Lemmings Paintball and Lemmings 3D DMA did not participate.

Before DMA joined Rockstar, David Jones left the company and created a new studio - Rage Software, which was soon renamed Real Time Worlds.

In 1997, the company was bought by British studio Gremlin Interactive, and Jones became Chief Creative Officer for both companies. Under the label "Gremlin" the company released two projects - Body harvest and the PC version of "Wild Metal Country" (a tank arcade game with very realistic physics). However, after Gremlin closed in 1999, the studio was bought by French publisher Infogrames. Difficulties were created by the contract between DMA and BMG Interactive, which published Grand theft Auto (which changed the entire gaming industry with unprecedented brutality and open world).

Grand Theft Auto (part one)

BMG Interactive became Rockstar Games, part of Take-Two. The newly minted company Rockstar, having seen what such popularity is, is releasing "GTA 2" for PC, PlayStation and Dreamcast.

The sequel turned out to be really cool - the sequel not only "absorbed" everything for which the first GTA was loved, but also introduced many significant innovations.

Grand theft auto 3

Released in October 2001, GTA 3 became a bestseller. I think many of you will remember this wonderful game. Who hasn't skated the streets of Liberty City that seemed incredibly detailed at the time?

The new part moved into the 3D dimension, thereby making another revolution in terms of video games. Graphics, which now seem backward to us, at that time were unimaginable, and the presence of violence was something new.

In December 2011, in honor of the 10th anniversary, the game was ported to mobile platforms (first to iOS, and then to Android).

Let me remind you that the events of the game take place in the city of Liberty City, which was specially created to look like New York. It is there that you need to help the main character, who escaped from prison, to "unwind" and gain authority, along the way completing missions.

Critics, as well as the players, welcomed the game well - it won the highest marks in all ratings.

On this positive note, I will end my article.
Since the history of Rockstar development is very voluminous - so as not to burden you with reading a large text, I decided to divide the article into.

A video game company and in some cases takes over as a publisher of games for other studios. Headquartered in New York, Rockstar Games is the parent company and wholly owned since 1998. Before it was acquired it had a name BMG Interactive.

A small list of those games that are the most popular: series GTA games, Max Payne, Midnight Club, etc. The company mainly makes third-person and open-world games.

Rockstar includes 10 studios scattered around the world. The most legendary and important studio for the company is Rockstar North.

List of all Rockstar Games studios

• Rockstar toronto
• Rockstar lincoln
• Rockstar london
• Rockstar japan
• Rockstar vancouver
• Rockstar new england

Key persons

Since its inception, the company has been chaired by brothers Sam and Dan Houser, who serve as President and Vice President.

Main Headquarters

Rockstar Games (also known as Rockstar NYC) is headquartered on Broadway in the Soho area of ​​New York City, part of the Take-Two building. This office is home to Rockstar's marketing, public relations and product development team.

External development

• Edge of Reality developed the game Monster Truck Madness 64, which later became the publisher of Rockstar Games.
• Z-Axis is making Thrasher presents Skate and Destroy, and Rockstar has released the game once again.
• Bungie has created a game called Oni operating Windows systems and Macintosh, Rockstar ported the game completely to the PS2. After that Microsoft bought Bungie studio, Halo game is created, Rockstar became the publisher in this business.
• The game Red dead Revolver developed by Rockstar San Diego in collaboration with Capcom is distributed in Japan in exchange for distribution rights for the GTA series in Japan.
• Backbone Entertainment has partnered with Rockstar North on development.
• Remedy Entertainment develops Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, in which Rockstar is involved as publisher. Then Rockstar Games acquires the rights to the Max Payne game.
• Australian independent studio Team Bondi co-publishes LA Noire with Rockstar, which later publishes the game.
• War Drum Studios is porting games grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Max Payne for iOS and Android smartphones /

History video

ROCKSTAR is not just a new band. This is a stellar union of true masters of rock music of the highest category. Rockstar's uniqueness lies in the strength of each member of the band, sought-after rock stars representing such legends of the world rock scene as Alice Cooper, Guns'n'Roses, Judas Priest, Scorpions and Ozzy Osbourne.
STRUCTURE:
Vocals Tim "Ripper" (OWENS Judas Priest)
Guitar by Keri KELLY (Alice Cooper)
Bass Rudy SARZO (Ozzy Osbourne)
Percussion James KOTTAK (Scorpions)
Keyboards Teddy "Zigzag" ANDREADIS (Guns'n'Roses)
ROCKSTAR is an unprecedented opportunity to hear famous songs, known to all lovers of real rock, in one concert!
“The five of us have spent over a hundred years in rock and roll,” says Scorpions drummer James KOTTAK. The idea to gather eminent gentlemen into a single fist belongs to guitarist Alice Cooper and Slash's Snakepit Keri KELLY. “When I heard a call from Keri, who invited me to play together, I immediately agreed. And when I heard about the line-up, I literally jumped to When else will there be an opportunity to work with Tim Ripper, Rudy and Carey? " - said Teddy "Zigzag" ANDREADIS, former keyboardist of Guns "n" Roses, member of Slash's solo album, virtuoso of harmonica and synthesizers in the projects of Billy Bob TORTON, Carol KING and Beta HART. Another member of the super-band Rudy SARZO, legendary bass player Ozzy Osbourne of Whitesnake, Dio and Quiet Riot says: "I have always admired the opportunity to play with great professional musicians. What I love about Rockstar is that we are not limited in our repertoire. Vocalist of Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Ingwy Malmsteen and the Dio Disciples Tim "Ripper" OWENS is well known to heavy music fans, and his vocal range allows for any level of difficulty. on the same stage.

DMA Design / Rockstar Studios / Rockstar North

The studio that created Grand theft auto 3, was not always called Rockstar studios... Until the spring of 2002, the company was called DMA Design(Doesn’t Mean Anything). DMA is a fifteen-year-old company in the market of games for PC, Amiga, PlayStation and many other platforms.

1987

Dave Jones (Dave jones) opens an office in Dundee DMA Design.

1989

Horizontal scrolling shooter released on PC and Amiga Menace with pleasant graphics for those times. A sequel will appear later on the Amiga - Bloodmoney... In the same year, a left-handed analogue of the arkanoid was published under the name Ballistix.

1991

First world success. DMA releases brilliant action puzzle game Lemmings, which marked the beginning of a whole series of similar games: Oh No! More lemmings (1991), Holiday Lemmings (1991), Lemmings 2: The Tribes(1993) and The lemmings chronicles(1994). The game became so popular that numerous imitations and even parodies soon appeared.

1993

Futuristic action / RPG Hired Guns becomes another proof of the talent of designers DMA... For the first time in history computer games users could play split-screen with up to four people using one keyboard while enjoying the level graphics DOOM.

1997

In collaboration with BMG Interactive the company produces Grand Theft Auto, a car thief simulator with a top view. The player had to "go through" each of the three fictional cities in the United States, stealing cars, carrying out orders from mafia bosses, collecting bonuses, escaping from the police and earning a million dollars. A separate achievement of the game was a great soundtrack, which combined almost all types of modern Western pop music.

1998

Take 2 Interactive acquires BMG Interactive, and with it all the rights to Gta... The PlayStation version of the game is released under a different brand.

1999

Take 2 Interactive acquires a studio DMA Design... Founder DMA Dave Jones leaves his native walls and goes to the company Denki- make games for the GameBoy.

This year DMA released a set of missions GTA Mission Pack # 1: London 1969, arcade RTS Tanktics: War and Pieces, 3D psychedelic action Wild metal country and Grand theft auto 2... Despite the improved graphics, GTA2 collected significantly more critical reviews than the first part.

2000

DMA Design moves to Edinburgh, after which he sits down to work on GTA3.

2001

Grand theft auto 3 goes to PlayStation 2 and in a matter of weeks of sales sells a million copies in England alone, beating the result of another popular game - Harry Potter and The Sorcerer "s Stone... World circulation GTA3-PS2 is over three million copies.

2002

Dave Jones creates a company RealTimeWorlds... In June under the label Rage Games command-tactical shooter is released Mobile forces using technology Unreal 2.

Shortly before the release of the RS-port GTA3 Take 2 changes name DMA Design on the Rockstar studios... The next project of the company is Grand Theft Auto 3: Vice City for PlayStation 2 and PC.

2003

PC version goes on sale in May GTA: Vice City, and by autumn the team Rockstar north(new name of the Scottish branch Rockstar) launches a sadistic killer simulator on the console market Manhunt and proceeds to develop the next part Gta... Details of the project were not disclosed.

2004

Spring shocking action Manhunt is ported and released to the PC, and Rockstar games finally opens the veil of secrecy: the new project of her division from Edinburgh is not a full-fledged fourth part predicted by many, but GTA: San andreas , which completes the three-dimensional trilogy, based on the cities of the very first Gta... The situation around the game, which was released exclusively for the PlayStation 2 in the fall, is heated by the lack of information about the version for the PC.

2005

To the delight of numerous fans Rockstar games announces (and releases in June) a version GTA: San Andreas for personal computers.

However, almost instantly a scandal flared up around the game due to the modification of "Hot Coffee", which opens access to hidden in the resources, but not completely blocked "adult" content. ESRB changes the original age rating of the game M(Mature - from 17 years old) to more strict AO(Adults Only - from 18 years old), which closes the boxes with SA road to the shelves of most major retail chains in the United States.

The publisher urgently releases a patch that blocks the erotic component San andreas, and also re-publishes the game itself, but he will have to feel the consequences of the scandal (including legal proceedings and financial losses) for quite a long time.

In the fall of the same year, the young division of the family Rockstar from English Leeds releases the first three-dimensional Gta for portable consoles - Liberty City stories on Sony PSP. The game is announced as an exclusive for the "little" sister PS2, which prompts many gamers to fall for the marketing ploy and buy a new console.

2006

May at E3 in Los Angeles Rockstar announces two new games of its most successful and notorious brand at once: for the fall of the same year, another PSP exclusive from Rockstar leeds - GTA: Vice City Stories, and in the foreseeable future Rockstar north should please the owners of next-gen consoles with a completely new game of the series - Gta iv.

Shortly before that it became known: in June, a portable Liberty city stories should move to PS2, which ultimately happened on time.

Released at the end of October of the same year "exclusive" for PSP GTA: Vice City Stories Has already "sold" a significantly smaller number of pocket consoles, partly due to the lack of trust of the players, partly due to the secondary nature of the gameplay, which did not carry any innovations (with the exception of the pseudo-economic mode Empire Building, which is, in fact, just a shell for all the same side missions).

2007

In the beginning of March GTA: Vice City Stories predictably "gave up" and went to PS2. But the majority was not waiting for her - October 16, 2007 was supposed to be released Gta iv.

On March 29, a PR marathon dedicated to the future colossus started: a debut trailer, a series of previews in game magazines, scans and screenshots, then a second trailer, a new wave of previews and screenshots (now in online editions) and ... an August press release about the postponement of the game to 2008.

Dead Season lasted until December, when the community was revived by a third video and a bit of information about the characters in the game that followed shortly thereafter. However, the release date of the game remained unnamed.

2008

April 29 long-awaited Grand theft auto iv released simultaneously on two new-generation consoles (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), instantly collecting a series of enchanting reviews, becoming the highest-rated game of all time, selling record copies of more than 10 million copies and providing its creators with a colossal profit of about half a billion US dollars.

The good news for most fans of the series was the announcement Rockstar games about the exit in the fall Gta iv for personal computers. The release, tentatively scheduled for November 18, was then pushed back two weeks later.

Rockstar Games, N.Y.

Company Rockstar games founded in 1998 Sam Hauser (Sam houser) and Terry Donovan (Terry donovan) in Manhattan, New York, and in currently is the property of a corporation Take-Two Interactive Software... The firm's American office is dedicated to publishing, producing and marketing; in addition, there are programmers, testers and designers who control the process of creating games.

Over the years of existence R * Games the following games were released under her bright orange label:

• Earthworm jim 3D(1999, Nintendo 64);
• GTA London 1969(1999, PC, PS);
• GTA Director's Cut(1999, PC, PS);
• Grand theft auto 2(1999, PC, PS, Sega Dreamcast, Gameboy Color);
• Monster Truck Madness 2(1999, Nintendo 64);
• Thrasher: Skate and Destroy(1999, PS);
• Wild metal(2000, Sega Dreamcast);
• Dr. Evil: Welcome to My Underground Lair(2000, Gameboy Color);
• Smuggler "s Run(2001, PS2);
• Midnight Club: Street Racing(2000, PS2);
• Oni(2001, PS2);
• The italian job(2001, PS);
• Surfing H3O(2001, PS2);
• Smuggler "s Run 2: Hostile Territory(2001, PS2);
• Max payne(2001, PC, Xbox, PS2);
• Grand theft auto 3(2001, PS2);
• State of Emergency(2002, PS2);
• Grand theft auto 3(2002, PC);
• Smuggler "s Run Warzones(2002, GameCube);
• Grand theft auto: vice city(2002, PS2, Xbox, PC);
• Midnight club ii(2003, PS2, Xbox, PC);
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne(2003, PS2, Xbox, PC);
• Manhunt(2003, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC);
• Red dead revolver(2004, PS2, Xbox);
• Grand theft auto advance(2004, Gameboy Advance);
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas(2004, PS2, Xbox, PC);
• Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition(2005, PS2, Xbox, PSP);
• The warriors(2005, PS2, Xbox, PSP);
• Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories(2005, PSP, PS2);
• Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis(2006, Xbox 360, Wii);
• Bully(2006, PS2);
• Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix(2006, PS2, Xbox);
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories(2006, PSP, PS2);
• Manhunt 2(2007, PS2, PSP, Wii);
• Bully: Scholarship Edition(2008, Xbox 360, Wii, PC);
• Grand theft auto iv(2008, PS3, Xbox 360, PC).

The plans of the company for the winter of 2008-2009. there is also a new Gta for portable consoles - Chinatown Wars announced for Nintendo DS.

Rockstar family

Part Rockstar games currently includes the following studios:

• Rockstar north(previously - DMA Design, creators of the series Gta);
• Rockstar london(opened in 2005, finalized and released the second part of the action Manhunt);
• Rockstar leeds(on account of their games of the series Gta for portable platforms: PSP, NDS);
• Rockstar japan(translates games into Japanese);
• Rockstar lincoln(division for localization and quality control of games);
• Rockstar toronto(game creators The warriors);
• Rockstar san diego(series developers Midnight club and Red dead revolver);
• Rockstar vancouver(game authors Bully);
• Rockstar new england(previously - Mad Doc Software).

Right now it’s hard to imagine, but not only large gaming companies, whose name begins with the word “Electronic”, can get into scandalous situations. For example, the biography of the beloved Rockstar also contains many dark spots that the studio would prefer to erase from your memory. Gmbox invites you, for the sake of variety, to shift the emphasis of "s-understand-who" and delve into the dirty linen of the company that gave the world Grand Theft Auto.

10. Rockstar started out with games for kids

Yes, the great brawlers and creators of some of the most “grown-up” games on the planet started out with rather modest projects intended for teenagers and even children. Thrasher: Skate & Destroy is a classic example. Despite having the purely punk term “destroy” in the title, this is quite a cute skater simulator suitable for the whole family. However, already in Earthworm Jim 3D (Rockstar was the publisher of the game in the United States), a certain madness was felt, which subsequently leaked into GTA.

9. Voice actor Niko Bellic: "I didn't get paid enough!"

Actor Michael Hollick was getting $ 1,050 for every day he voiced a cute Eastern European guy - not bad, we could live like this, right? However, this was not enough for Mr. Hollick. Moreover, after the fact - after the contract was signed, all remarks and dialogues were announced, and the sales of GTA IV exceeded $ 500 million. Of course, Rockstar did not revise the fee, and the company is right: Hollick could wait for the release of GTA V, or even a second coming. However, the Hollywood Actors Guild was still able to inflate a scandal out of this.

8. Manhunt caused Rockstar to split

After the harshest criticism of GTA III and Vice City, Rockstar understood that the concept of the upcoming Manhunt was a leap into the unknown, the final crossing of the line and an invasion of those bloody meadows where only Postal had the courage to graze before. Plastic bags, sharpening, a shotgun shot in the head at point-blank range - this was already realistic (by the standards of 2003) violence, it could not be attributed to a “parody of modern cruel manners”, as in GTA. A small part of the team refused to create Manhunt and left the studio.

7.Rockstar stole tracks from rapper Daz Dillinger for GTA V

In the process of preparing the soundtrack for GTA V, Rockstar agents contacted Daz Dillinger and offered him an “offensively small” (as the artist himself described it) amount of $ 4,271 for two tracks. The rapper refused, but his tracks still ended up in GTA V. The singer hired lawyers and demanded either an impressive compensation, or ... the destruction of all copies of the game. The case did not come to court, to destruction - as we know, too. Rockstar's hookmakers turned out to be "a little" more professional than Dese's lawyers.

6.Target Refuses to Sell GTA V Due to Violence Against Women

Closer to the release of GTA V, it was already clear that someone would start a scandal in the style of “Will no one think about children!?!?”. But no: human rights organizations have chosen another vulnerable category - women. The petition was signed by over 50 thousand people, and Australian Target stores decided not to sell GTA V. In these supermarkets you can easily find other violent games, violent films and even a little eroticism, but Grand Theft Auto V is taboo. In the game, about 80 times more men die than women, but this no longer worries anyone.

5. Rockstar "accidentally" left a sex mini game in GTA: San Andreas

Probably everyone knows about the legendary Hot Coffee mod. But not everyone knows that, technically, this is not a mod at all, but quite official content created by Rockstar programmers. Then it was decided not to add it to the final release, but the code was not cut, but simply blocked. That is, the modders did not create it from scratch, but they found a way to unlock it instantly. In many scenes, the characters are fully clothed, but Australia - you guessed it - banned the sale of the game, and in the US it was given the toughest age rating. Like pornography.

4. Change of name Bully in the UK

In the mid-2000s, the topic of protecting children from bullying, that is, from attacks at school, was extremely relevant in Britain. And it was during this period that Rockstar had to release a game called Bully! The general public, of course, freaked out. So much so that in the United Kingdom they even had to change the name to Canis Canem Edit, which literally translates from Latin as “Man to man is a wolf”. An interesting fact: when the passions subsided, critics were surprised to find out that gopovy Jimmy Hopkins (the main character) in many situations protects nerds (or, as they said, nerds) from the attacks of even more severe gopniks. As a result, the reissue of Bully: Scholarship Edition was able to quietly come out with the original title even in the lands of Her Majesty.

3. Indirect relationship of Manhunt and real murder

Again, in the mid-2000s, sensationalists were given a unique opportunity to stir up an unprecedented scandal. Just think - the police added a copy of a video game to the case of a real (and very cruel) murder as one of the evidence. And what a video game - Manhunt! Then, however, one "insignificant" detail emerged, which the media vultures initially preferred to omit: the box belonged to the victim, not the killer. Agree, here already the "pernicious influence of video games" is not so obvious.

2. Manhunt 2 = 0, world = 1

And again Manhunt, but this time the second part. After the first one, the world prepared for the meeting. ESRB, BBFC and other organizations assigned impossible ratings to the game: sales in Britain were completely banned, in the USA sales were allowed only in small specialty stores. For an era without ubiquitous high-speed internet, this was a complete failure. Rockstar had to filter the moments of murder, remove the most brutal executions (mainly decapitation) and eliminate the reward system for special sadism. It should be admitted: that time the company lost in the battle with the politically correct world.

1. The most famous scandal in modern Rockstar history

It's hard to envy Lindsay Lohan: the fame is over, the roles are over, the money for the cook ... coconuts too, and the actress needs the road to fresh fruit! What to do? Surely suing Rockstar for the cameo character Lacey Jonas, who was (supposedly) completely copied from Lindsay herself. But the brawler did not succeed. The New York court ruled that the satire genre involves the creation of characters very similar to real ones, in order to ridicule the shortcomings of their prototypes. GTA V is satire. Consequently, no violation of rights occurred. Well, good luck, Lindsay: you'll have to climb unfamiliar palm trees for the coconuts you want.