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The history of Rockstar games

Whilst video games started out for kids, in 2000 the age range grew increasing the game types. A revolution began and Rockstar games redefined gaming becoming the most controversial and well known game company. Brothers Sam and Dan originally wanted to be rock stars but after joining the music career they soon realised it’s not what they wanted. The company they worked for BMG, created a gaming branch which the two both jumped on board. They met DMA who had an idea for a new game called race and chase which involved things like carjacking and running from the police, this new game didn’t have main goals and was instead free form which left it up to the players how they wanted to play. The brothers agreed to publish the game liking the ideas and concepts behind it, whilst taking longer to publish than expected (30 months) due to the new gaming style. It was later named grand theft auto and released to the public becoming very popular. Take 2 bought the interactive division giving the brothers the big break they needed, creating Rockstar games.

The brothers began the second GTA selling around 2 million copies, they wanted to push boundaries and get more people involved in gaming not just your typical nerds. GTA 3 once again had freeform but they now added a plot line giving a dark humour to the game. It was one of the first games to make use of a licensed soundtrack, featuring fake radio stations with real songs. It was the most adult game created in its time and was one of the most ground breaking games revolutionising gaming and increasing the popularity for something everyone can enjoy. The game however did come with a downside despite there being many other violent games this game was singled out by politicians and some even claimed it was the reasoning behind a teen murder at the time. Despite this, sales continued to climb making it the bestselling game of the year.

Just before the release of GTA 3 Rockstar saw potential in the new Max Payne game and so they purchased it outright and started importing it onto consoles. Making 2 hit games in only 2 months shooting right to the top. Although not all went well, they released State of Emergency which bombed completely, however this didn’t get them down. They knew GTA was their greatest asset and for that reason bought DMA in 2002 as they knew they were the only ones to be trusted with the making of this game. For the new GTA they wanted to push their games further by adding in professional actors for voice actors. Rockstar also decided to create manhunt one of the most violent games focusing on murder. With the new most impressive murder scenes, there was bound to be backlash which came in the form of several countries banning the game all together. As usual this didn’t stop them.

In 2004 they released a new game Red Dead Revolver the start of a new franchise set in the west. It originally belonged to Capcom but they gave up giving Rockstar the opportunity. Whilst it wasn’t their biggest hit and received some bad reviews it was still fairly popular for what they had to work with. Also in 2004 they released GTA San Andreas the biggest and most violent GTA so far, it once again had a top tier cast including Samuel L Jackson. It included new weapons and vehicles, as well as having the biggest map in any game, it went on to be a top selling game in the US and Europe. Sony paid to make GTA PlayStation only so 9 months after the release of the new GTA it went to pc and Xbox. Allowing mods and patches for pc to be found and created including a sex scene referred to as ‘hot coffee’, Rockstar didn’t have the time or resources to remove it so late so tried to make it unreachable, yet people still got to it. The idea of sex in a game was not a good one making the rating adults only, this meant no shop would sell it and Xbox and Sony wouldn’t either resulting in a recall costing Rockstar $25 million. Whilst they were more than happy to carry on with their violent games no more sex appeared in their games as it was seen as too much even for them.

After the ‘hot coffee’ incident Rockstar needed to get themselves back on track, they had yet another controversial game in the making. The game was their first movie tie in however the movie was 26 years old, whilst they believed it was a safe bet after its release it only caused more of an uproar of how they were trying to ruin the worlds youth. In 2006 they announced table tennis, they used this to show off their new graphics and surprised people everywhere, it got good reviews making it a good sports game. They proved they could make family friendly games, to further convince people they were capable of producing a suitable game they released bully. A game based on getting back at bullies with the most violence being nothing more than a small fist fight. But due to this being a Rockstar game it by default was controversial, Jack Thompson sued the game. Rockstar still carried on pushing boundaries as they knew that this is what they did best, as early as 2004 they had planned to create a Man Hunt 2, but they for an unknown reason shut down the Vienna branch in 2006 with no warning. After transferring the game to London it was completed for summer 2007, surprisingly the game was rated an adults only meaning no console would allow it on its system. Rockstar had to censor their game in order to get it released and even after that it only got middle reviews. Once again hackers got to the hidden more violent parts of the game, but this time the game wasn’t re rated as it had been stated that these codes still existed and in November this became a direct download.

After 4 years out the spotlight GTA was set to return with a bang, they went hd and created the most active and accurate city ever seen in a video game. GTA 4 went to both the Xbox and PlayStation at the same time for release, with Xbox paying to get any downloadable content exclusively before PlayStation or pc. Despite some delays it sold 3.6 million copies by midnight making it the fastest selling game as well as one of the highest rating getting a perfect review. They later brought out the DLCs which could have been games in their own right due to the detail in story and characters. Their next game was red dead redemption which was also a huge hit showing off all the detail from GTA yet making it very different at the same time.