P1-History of Rockstar

The video game world was originally meant for kids, however by the early 2000’s once gamers began to get older the demographic changed to mature and adult gaming. This is where Rockstar come into the fold, after they realised that they the gamers were becoming older they capitalised and to this day are still classed as the most successful, recognisable and controversial companies in the gaming industry. Rockstar first began in 1993 BMG Interactive decided to not just be a music company and decided to cash into the gaming world which had their company based in London, Sam and Dan Howser jumped into this project and decided to head the company and changed from being aspiring musicians despite the fact they knew nothing about the gaming world. Race and Chase created by Sam and Dan was one of the first games to have full more adult content and at the time was something completely different to something that had come in the past, Race and Chase was one of the first player choice games and took 30 months to make.

In 1997 Race and Chase was finally released and got a new name, Grand Theft Auto. However, despite the game being well received by the public and critics alike BMG was under pressure from corporate overlords to be cut loose. Due to Dan and Sam now about to become unemployed Take-Two Interactive in New York wanted to be making new darker games meaning they ended up buying BMG Interactive and Dan and Sam agreed to be the heads of the department once again. The brothers were given the budget and creative freedom by Take-Two and decided to name their new publishing house Rockstar after their own dream, this led to their first game being published with Take-Two Interactive known as Grand Theft Auto 2. Grand Theft Auto 2 was the first game in 1999 released by Rockstar games and sold around 2 million units this was then followed up with other games such as Midnight Club: Street Racing (2000) and Smugglers Run (2000) all these also sold well. This led to Rockstar’s next aim of wanting to break away from the stigma that only nerds brought and played video games.

The next game to be released was Grand Theft Auto 3, for this game Sam Howser would be the director and producer while Dan Howser would be the writer, the new GTA would be a 3 dimensional game and not 2 dimensional like the previous GTA’s, it would also have a dark backstory to it which included mobsters although this would make it much more expensive it would set it out compared to the previous GTA’s. Other features that would set it out to other games were things such as the use of a heavy sound track on the game and the fact that it dealt with drugs, prostitution and organised crime. Something new when compared to games around it at its time.  Grand Theft Auto 3 was released in 2001 and was a massive hit and is classed as a ground-breaking game, so much so it became the bestselling game of the year, due to the content it helped create a brand new gaming audience as now it wasn’t just nerds buying games which also helped Sony sell PlayStation 2’s as now everyone wanted this game. However, it wasn’t all positive news as the game went on to be virtually banned in Australia, however despite this Rockstar went on to bring out Max Payne in 2001 which was purchased by Rockstar and was sold to consoles as it was originally a PC game, it was once again a hit giving Rockstar two hit games in just two months.

By 2002 DMA was brought by Rockstar and named Rockstar North, GTA Vice City was now in the works under Rockstar North. To advertise the game Rockstar used things such as posters which was never used for games before and was something associated more with music and films. By October 2002 it was sold and was very successful again, which then led to the next controversial game in 2003. Manhunt was released in 2003 and was one of the goriest and most graphic games ever seen and released, the game received a lot of backlash once it was released and was banned in New Zealand and practically in Australia and on top of that was blamed for a teen murder in the UK. This then went on to see Rockstar try out something new, the film industry. In 2004 Rockstar released a film called the football factory which was based on Football Hooliganism within the UK, due to it being on English football it only ever was heard about within the UK, however it did have small success.

After making their first ever film Rockstar went back to the game industry and their next Grand Theft Auto, in October 2004 Grand Theft Auto San Andreas was released, the game had a top cast including Samuel L Jackson doing a voiceover for a character and had more even more weapons and cars than the previous GTA’s, the game even had a system were the player had to keep fit otherwise they would become overweight, the game was also huge with an entire state and 3 whole cities being included into the map. Once released sales were massive, it was the highest selling game in the US and in Europe, however things soon went wrong. Gamers discovered a mod that allowed the character within the game to have sex, it was discovered on the PC and the game rating had to be changed from moderate to adult only. Due to companies such as Microsoft and Sony not having adult games on their consoles Rockstar had to recall the game which cost them around £25 million which was a big blow for the game and company.

After getting past that hurdle it was announced that Rockstar would be bringing out another Grand Theft Auto, GTA 4. The rage gaming engine would be used for the new GTA 4 which would the game to be in HD, it was to be the most detailed, accurate and active city seen in a game that would be based in New York (Liberty City). To help make more sales the game would hit the PS3 and Xbox 360 at the same time rather than hit PlayStation first, when in the past it had hit the PlayStation before hitting any other console. Due to all the new features that were to be included which included multiplayer this time around, the game would cost $100 million making it the most expensive game of all time, however once GTA was released on April 29^th 2008 by midnight that day it had sold 3.6 million units, a week later this was 6 million making Rockstar $500 million in 7 days, the fastest selling entertainment release in history and making the cost of the game not a problem anymore.