Institution Research-Background of Rockstar?
Rockstar Games is a major video game developer and publisher based in New York City, owned by Take-Two Interactive following its purchase of UK video game publisher BMG Interactive. It comprises studios that have been acquired and renamed as well as others that have been created internally. While many of the studios Take-Two Interactive has acquired have been merged into the Rockstar brand, several other recent ones have retained their previous identities and have become part of the company's 2K Games division. The Rockstar Games label was founded in New York City in 1998 by the English video game producers Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, 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
What other titles are Rockstar famous for ?The brand is mostly known for Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, L.A. Noire, The Warriors, Bully, Manhunt, Midnight Club and Red Dead series and the use of open world, free roaming settings in their games.
Rockstar Games is a major video game developer and publisher based in New York City, owned by Take-Two Interactive following its purchase of UK video game publisher BMG Interactive. It comprises studios that have been acquired and renamed as well as others that have been created internally. While many of the studios Take-Two Interactive has acquired have been merged into the Rockstar brand, several other recent ones have retained their previous identities and have become part of the company's 2K Games division. The Rockstar Games label was founded in New York City in 1998 by the English video game producers Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, 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
What other titles are Rockstar famous for ?The brand is mostly known for Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, L.A. Noire, The Warriors, Bully, Manhunt, Midnight Club and Red Dead series and the use of open world, free roaming settings in their games.
- What has been their most successful game?
Grand Theft Auto 27.5 million copies sold world wide.
Grand Theft Auto 27.5 million copies sold world wide.
- What controversies have surrounded Rockstar in the past?
Hot Coffee on GTA: San Andreas-
The Hot Coffee mod is a normally inaccessible minigame in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, developed by Rockstar North. Public awareness of the existence of the minigame arrived with the release of the Hot Coffee mod, created for the version released in 2005 for Microsoft Windows. This mod enables access to the minigame.Hot Coffee on GTA: San Andreas-
Before and after its release, Bully caused a lot of controversy among parents and educators since its first inception. The title of Bully itself caused a great deal of controversy, leading to the game being marketed as Canis Canem Edit in PAL which means 'dog eat dog' in Latin.
- What has made them so successful?
"
It's in our DNA to avoid doing what other companies are doing. I suppose you could say that Max Payne 3 is something close to an FPS, but there are really unique aspects to the setting and gameplay there, too, not just in the story. You have to have originality in your games; you have to have some kind of interesting message. You could say that the goalpoint of Rockstar is to have the players really feel what we're trying to do.""
- Discuss the development and importance of R.A.G.E?
Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is a game engine developed by the RAGE Technology Group at the video game developer Rockstar San Diego with contributions by other Rockstar studios. Rockstar developed the engine to facilitate game development on Microsoft Windows, along with the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles. RAGE evolved from the Angel Game Engine originally developed by Angel Studios for use in the sixth generation console era versions of the Midnight Clubseries and other Rockstar San Diego games.
LA Noire's engine - HAVOK: Havok Physics is a physics engine developed by Irish company Havok. It is designed primarily for video games, and allows for real-time collision and dynamics of rigid bodies in three dimensions. Havok allows for more realistic virtual worlds in games.
- Discuss the importance of franchises to Rockstar.
Franchises are important to Rockstar as this is where their base of income is brought from, the profits from these can then be used to create spin-offs from the franchise and or attempt to create a completely new franchises all together.- Discuss how Rockstar is an example of vertical integration.
Rockstar have bought out the companies they work with, this means that they now own all aspects of their company. (See list of studios, above)- Why is vertical integration important for developers?
It is important to developers as they want to maximize profits with minimum fuss. By buying out the studio’s which help in development of game, they can split profits without hassle from the other company as they are now under control of Rockstar.- Discuss the oligopoly of the games industry and the implications for Rockstar.
Rockstar are now a neutral party to the ‘big three’( Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony), they were commonly associated with Sony, however now they will accept offers that will profit them greatly, and example of this is Downloadable content. In 2009, Rockstar accepted an offer from Microsoft to keep ‘The Lost and Damned’ DLC for GTA IV, exclusive for XBOX 360 for a year.