The History of Rockstar Grand Theft Auto 5 Game
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document.write('one upstart company founded
by unknowns with little gaming experience dared to kick it off and in doing so became the flagbearer for a new era of gaming and gamers in so doing they have become one of the most successful recognizable and controversial names in the entire gaming market a powerhouse force of innovation and privado that has changed the course of a medium and redefined when an art form was capable of two kids from England may never have become the musicians they wanted to be but that didn't stop them from becoming their own kind of rockstar growing up Sam and dan Houser always wanted to be rock-and-roll gods but at some point the two boys from London got exposed to an American import hip hop it quickly became their new inspiration a musical style that like rock was equal parts look sound and style that somehow consolidated into one way of life it was a philosophy that the brothers took to heart one that would define their later works once they finished school the pair Dov's straight for their dream and joined major music label BMG in London unfortunately real jobs didn't look like music videos their work was dull and boring Sam and Dan quickly found that being in the heart of the music industry was a far cry from being stars in their own right as with so many hopeful youths it looked like reality might kill the dream but then in 1993 BMG did something
unexpected cashing in on the gaming
craze it started an interactive division
based right out of London and they
wanted young hip kids to drive it
starving for more creative freedom Sam
and Dan jumped on board knowing
absolutely nothing about programming or
game making perhaps it was no real
surprise then that BMG Interactive's
library of work was not exactly stellar
and sales didn't exactly rival BMG's
music division and then from the
unlikeliest place imaginable the Houser
brothers met the crew with whom they'd
shaped the industry DMA design from
central Scotland were famous for
creating the lemmings series of games
clearly kids fare but also imbued with
the dark sense of humor DMA now had an
idea for a different kind of game a
top-down driver with a punk sensibility
called racing chase the 2d game would be
a fairly basic racer but would feature
carjackings thugs mafiosos police and
innocent by standards just waiting for a
whacking any and all of these were
potential victims for the player making
the otherwise simplistic title far more
adult than others on the market
the game also lacks something every
other game had specific goals instead
the title would be an open-world with
lots of options
there were in fact three worlds to
choose from Liberty City which was
clearly New York Vice City which was
clearly Miami and San Andreas which was
clearly San Francisco it would be up to
the player to decide what he wanted to
do in it if he failed he wouldn't get a
game over screen or restart a level
instead he'd simply lose his weapons and
then go off to do whatever he wanted
again if he hit a part that was too hard
or that he didn't like he wouldn't be
stuck with it he'd simply try something
totally different
the Hauser's were blown away they
recognized the potential for a
groundbreaking new kind of game based
not off of objectives but off of player
choice in a deep varied world they
agreed to publish the game and DM a set
off to work it ended up taking longer
than anticipated nearly 30 months the
freeform nature of the game which made
it so appealing also made it difficult
to code and harder to test the simple
title became a high-risk gamble but at
last racing chase released in 1997 under
a new name
Grand Theft Auto critics praised it for
all the same reasons the Hauser's had
and it went on to be a success by the
standards of PMG interactive sadly BMG
standards weren't that high 2 million
units was nothing to scoff at but
despite GTA's high-octane performance
the publisher was floundering their
corporate overlords wanted to cut them
loose meanwhile in New York another
struggling upstart publisher was looking
for fresh blood take-two interactive
wanted to be making darker edgier games
but thus far hadn't found any success
but recognizing that the guys from
London had a vibe and a style just
looking for an outlet take two bought
BMG's interactive division the brothers
had grown up listening to new york hip
hop were about to move to the Big Apple
they've been given a budget and the
creative freedom to do whatever they
wanted if they played their cards right
they knew this could just be their big
break all they needed was a name for
their new venture
in homage to their original dream they
called their new publishing house rock
star in the mid 90s major music label
BMG decided they'd try their hand at the
video game market they opened an
interactive division in their London
offices were two young employees Sam and
dan Houser were looking for a creative
outlet they jumped at the chance to head
the new division and quickly published a
number of minor titles but when DMA
design in Scotland approached them with
a new idea a free-form game that would
allow gamers to do whatever they wanted
whenever they wanted the Hauser's knew
they had a hit on their hands grand
theft auto would go on to be BMG
Interactive's biggest hit but it wasn't
enough to save the division BMG spun it
off to upstart publisher take-two
interactive in new york the brothers and
their crew moved to New York City with
the task of making a brand that would be
synonymous with edgy adult
groundbreaking gaming and so Rockstar
Games was created the only question was
could it deliver on the promise of grand
theft auto
though Rockstar was technically a
different company from BMG Interactive
all the top people were the same
including the Hauser's continuing the
relationships they'd formed they reach
back out to DMA design and got to work
on grand theft auto - the brothers
remained an integral creative force in
the titles development helping keep the
tone of the game focused and consistent
the result released in 1999 and like its
predecessor sold well it was largely the
same game though this time around it did
feature factional gang warfare that the
player could influence any way he wanted
like gta1 gta2 ended up selling about
two million units worldwide meanwhile
Rockstar reached out to other talent as
well publishing games like midnight club
and smugglers run these two sold well
the new venture was doing alright
nevertheless the Rockstar crew had
bigger ambitions than just doing alright
Rockstar wanted to push the boundaries
of what games aspired to be and in doing
so attract audiences who normally didn't
play video games they wanted to break
away from the stigma that only nerds
played games they wanted their products
to be as cool as hip-hop to do that
they'd have to break away from the
science fiction and fantasy trappings of
most games and produce something that
was both realistic and escapist at the
same time of all the companies they
worked with they knew that DMA had hit
closest to this mark with their Grand
Theft Auto series so to make the next
GTA game bigger better and grander than
the earlier titles the Hauser's decided
to dive headfirst into it this time they
would not be making the same game with
updated graphics they'd be crafting
their magnum opus Sam became the
director and producer of the new game
while Dan became the head writer where
previous grand theft auto's have been
barely narrative 2d drivers this next
game would be a character driven darkly
comic saga of mobsters and mafiosos in
three dimensions this would make for a
much more expensive game than others in
the series but rockstars aren't made by
playing it safe following on from its
predecessors the game would have a
free-form style in an open realistic
City
there would be a main story with its own
quests but the gamer could choose to
ignore it and go to any of hundreds of
side quests or ignore those two and just
go crazy on his own in one of the
largest game worlds ever made far from
yet another Super Soldier in space this
character would let gamers feel like an
unrestrained street thug in the real
world
a guy who could do all the things we'd
love to try if only there were no
consequences and in a virtual world
there weren't the end result was
gleefully violent without any sort of
moral compass
there was a wanted meter that would go
up as the player committed more crimes
but since a high meter only drew more
cops with better vehicles that wasn't
really a bad thing though the city was
realistic the gameplay was not the
driving mechanic was built more for the
fun factor than anything approaching
realism and the quest themselves were
more like a hybrid between the seedy
underworld and the absurd this was a
world where jacking a police car was
commonplace and jacking a tank was even
possible now that gives Grand Theft Auto
a whole new meaning it would also be one
of the first games to make heavy use of
a license sound
the title featured several fake radio
stations that played real-world songs
lending the game a further air of
authenticity amidst its crazy antics the
story would bring the gamer deep into
the underbelly of modern society brought
to life with top-notch voice acting and
believable dialogue the title dared to
deal with adult issues like drugs
prostitution and organized crime much
heavier fare than other games tried for
it would easily be the most adult game
ever made a twisted and sordid crime
epic that enjoyed itself far too much
the combination of real world
environments and way over-the-top
gameplay proved to be irresistible
finally there was a way for gamers to
vent all those actions that society
didn't allow from running red lights to
running into cars to running from the
cops to having the cops run from you
Grand Theft Auto 3 was an instant mega
smash upon its release it was heralded
as one of the most groundbreaking games
in years and to this day it is seen as a
watershed moment in the art forms
history its adult content and themes
revolutionized how games were perceived
and whole new audiences who had never
been interested in geeky video games
bought PlayStation 2 is to play Grand
Theft Auto coming so early in the Sony
consoles release cycle GTA was a large
contributor to the ps2 s early lead in
the console war a position it held
throughout that entire generation so
strong was GTA's influence that Sony
paid take-two to keep the franchise
PlayStation exclusive at least for a
couple of years but the popularity came
with its own problems though there were
plenty of other violent games on the
market for whatever reason politicians
singled this one out as their new
Whitney boy Australia even refused to
raid it effectively banning the title in
that country also a then-unknown Florida
lawyer and anti gaming activist Jack
Thompson claimed that the game was
responsible for a 2003 teen murder in
Ohio kicking off a long line of Jack
Thompson court battles that often
involved rockstar
but despite all their best efforts at
keeping the game down nothing drives
sales like controversy Grand Theft Auto
was the new rock and roll when publisher
take-two interactive bought BMG's
interactive division they weren't
getting a lot of high selling titles the
one franchise that showed some promise
was a top-down 2d driver grand theft
auto as the BMG veterans founded their
new studio Rockstar Games they look to
reinvent the nerdy industry into a
cultural icon betting the farm that GTA
could make gaming cool the result was
2001 s grand theft auto 3 a game aimed
squarely at mature audiences tackling
everything from murder to drugs to
carjacking it violently went against the
grain and drew the ire of parents and
politicians alike needless to say it was
the best-selling game of the year
Rockstar now had the money and prestige
to do whatever they wanted and what they
wanted was to push their luck right to
the hilt
just before GTA 3 had released in
October 2001 developer remedy delivered
Max Payne to the PC Rockstar immediately
saw the potential for the series since
it's dark adult twist on gaming was in
line with their own ambitions and so
Rockstar purchased the Max Payne IP
outright and ported the game to consoles
in December of 2001 that made for two
hit games in only two months the
publisher had shot straight to the top
which didn't mean that everything they
touched turned to gold in early 2002
they released state of emergency
a riot game about an urban uprising
against the establishment while it
nominally adhered to GTA's anarchic
style the game had all of the free form
and none of the focus the title bombed
commercially it didn't faze them in the
least knowing that GTA was their
greatest asset and that only Scottish
developer DMA design could be trusted
with the phenomenon Rockstar bought the
studio in 2002 DMA was now rockstar
north and they already had a game in the
works they opted to push out a new GTA
as quickly as possible only barely
updating the old engine but there would
be no danger of treading old ground
because GTA was travelling back in time
taking healthy inspiration from 80s
icons like Miami Vice and Scarface it
took the over-the-top hyper stylization
of GTA 3 and shot it to Florida 1986
based off of Vice City from the original
Grand Theft Auto this city would be
positively drenched in neon pastels bad
tans and coked out mobsters rockstars
signature attention to atmosphere would
be present in spades with Rockstar
founders Sam and dan Houser personally
making sure that everything in the game
adhered to one aesthetic and that
aesthetic was a tease camp to the enth
degree but the Hauser's still wanted to
be pushing the boundaries of what games
should strive for for their vocal talent
Rockstar assembled an all-star cast
including Ray Liotta as the lead
character Dennis Hopper James Woods
Peter Fonda and who else but jenna
jameson the stigma that video games
weren't respect
we'll work for an actor was starting to
fade the game was even more ridiculous
than its precursor but featured the same
insane attention to every last detail
gameplay wise it was largely the same
but with more vehicles weapons and
missions than ever before it also added
in a real-estate economy that gamers
could use to become legitimate land
barons though of course being legit in
GTA's world was next to impossible
despite all the uproar over GTA 3s
violence the follow-up would still have
players beating up cops and civilians
alike meanwhile rock stars started
plastering posters all over cities
around the world a marketing tactic
usually reserved for music acts not
content to break new ground in the game
itself this title would herald a whole
new age of gaming promotion it
immediately gave Grand Theft Auto a
certain street cred and cultural status
no game had even attempted before you're
just not a rockstar if you follow the
rules grand theft auto vice city
released in October 2002 and once again
sold like gangbusters it did generate
some more controversy from media
watchdogs upset about the developers
refusal to tone down the themes they
could have backed off and gone the safe
route at this point they didn't rockstar
north decided to take a break from
jacking cars so that they could focus on
the murdering 2003 would see the release
of manhunt one of the most wanted leave
islands ever produced it followed an
executed felon who was saved from death
by a psychotic director who wanted to
film him killing wave after wave of
gangsters but really what the game was
about was bloody bloody murder over and
over and over again it featured some of
the most gruesome detailed and grotesque
animations ever rendered but that wasn't
enough for Rockstar oh no before the
titles release rockstar upped the ante
again by sending an actual barbed wire
garrote to journalists reviewing the
game once again the shock value wouldn't
be limited to the game itself of course
such a thing couldn't come out without a
backlash
the game was banned in New Zealand
effectively banned in Australia
confiscated in Munich and blamed for a
teen murder in the UK although it was
later revealed that it was actually the
victim who played the game but once
again controversy did nothing to slow
sales it may not have been Grand Theft
Auto but manhunt still became an iconic
title that helped define Rockstar as the
counter culture brand of the new
millennium with all the fame and
attention the Hauser's were rumored to
let it all go to their heads routinely
insulting and degrading their own
employees but despite their soaring egos
they never lost their focus on even the
most microscopic details in their games
if they thought of themselves as the
peak of the gaming world at least they
kept earning the title and they'd earn
it again in 2004 with the best-selling
theft of them all
when Rockstar Games was founded in 1998
they didn't have any hit franchises to
their name but rockstars founders Sam
and Dan Hauser had worked with DMA
design on their grand theft auto games
the Houser sense that the franchise was
a revolution in the making if only they
could get the right elements together
they hit the mark dead-on with their
2001 sequel grand theft auto 3 one of
the best-selling and most influential
games of all time Rockstar expanded
exponentially buying up both studios
around the world and hit ip's like Max
Payne but no matter what they did they
always came back to their
standard-bearer GTA as 2004 rolled
around the corner it would bring with it
everything that made Rockstar what it
was creative experiments a monster
success and a controversy so large its
repercussions can still be felt to this
day
as if the gaming world couldn't contain
them anymore 2004 saw the release of
rockstars first movie back in 1999
they'd made a short film to help promote
Grand Theft Auto two but now they were
going for the big screen the football
Factory was a British film about English
hooligans executive produced by Rockstar
Games not surprisingly a hardcore
football club movie didn't gain much
traction outside of England itself
nonetheless as a glorification of the
hyper violent counterculture it was a
perfect fit for the gaming bad boys but
at the end of the day they were still a
game publisher and they had plenty to do
in May 2004 they released the first game
of a brand new franchise one of the few
set in the Wild West Red Dead Revolver
the title was originally developed by
angel studios for Japanese publisher
Capcom but after a few delays and
production woes Capcom gave up on the
title assuming it would never be
finished
however Rockstar knew the company had
Talent since they worked together on
midnight club and smugglers run and so
they bought the studio rebranding it
Rockstar San Diego but when Rockstar
acquired them their Western game was a
mess while all the various parts of the
game including duels and a bullet time
mechanic were good ideas its polish
wasn't up to the level they needed to be
more importantly they didn't cohere into
one seamless experience which had always
been rockstars greatest strength when it
did finally hit shelves it was praised
for perfectly recalling spaghetti
westerns of old but was faulted for
having a flawed execution appropriately
enough the game was something of an
imperfect antihero but rockstars primary
focus for the year wouldn't be the Wild
West but the West Coast in October 2004
they released their biggest boldest and
baddest game yet grand theft auto san
andreas i want you to pay him a little
visit carl and destroy all his evidence
before he testifies short this out Carl
Oh officer Tenpenny can sleep easy
those san andreas had appeared in the
very first GTA as a stand-in for san
francisco in this title it would be
expanded into an entire state that had
three seas within it parodies of Los
Angeles San Francisco and Las Vegas like
Vice City before it San Andreas would
feature a top-tier cast including the
vamp himself samuel l.jackson timid
eight those who intimidate others Carl
it's my job it included even more
weapons and vehicles than before and
even had a physical fitness system if
you didn't eat right and exercise your
character would get fat and ugly a
little lesson for the audience amidst
all the chaos but the biggest change was
the game sheer bigness an entire state
three whole cities and all the endless
deserts in between made for one of the
largest game worlds ever made Grand
Theft Auto was larger than life the game
would also generate rockstars second
film a documentary about the lowrider
culture of Southern California called
Sunday driver the film was included with
the special edition of san andreas
reviews were glowing and the hype was
rabid
sales went through the stratosphere san
andreas went on to be the highest
selling game in the history of both the
United States and Europe rockstar was
untouchable
what could possibly go wrong Sony had
paid rockstars owners take to to make
the GTA franchise exclusive to the
PlayStation 2 for a limited time so nine
months after san andreas released on the
ps2 it came to the PC and Xbox the PC
version like its predecessors allowed
for modding from the community only two
days after the PC versions release in
America and a day before its release in
Europe a Dutch modern named Patrick
Wilden Berg released a patch for the PC
game this patch literally changed only
one bit of the game's main file but by
doing so Wilden board made a hidden
section of the game's code available a
fully interactive sex minigame that he
called hot
koffie for their own reasons Rockstar
had decided not to allow the sex game to
players however by the time this
decision was made the game was next to
done untangling the minigames code from
the rest of the project would have taken
both time and resources they couldn't
waste so instead they had opted to keep
the code and just make it inaccessible
they've never considered that modders
might find it within days the hot coffee
mod had become a media firestorm the
extreme brutal violence of manhunt was
fine but the idea that a game had sex
was absolutely unacceptable the ESRB
re-rated the game from mature to adults
only
since major retailers refused to carry
an adults-only game and Microsoft and
Sony won't allow one on their consoles
Rockstar was forced to recall the game
at a cost of 25 million dollars and if
that wasn't enough the US government
decided they needed to save America's
children from the publisher Hillary
Clinton declared it was quote stealing
the innocence of our children in 2005
she joined senators joe lieberman and
evan bayh to introduce the family
entertainment Protection Act which would
federally enforce the ESRB rating system
the bill never went to a vote on top of
all of this class-action lawsuits were
brought against take-two by angry
parents incensed that the publisher had
hidden porn in their children's games
never mind the fact that no one under
the age of 17 should be playing the M
rated game and never mind that the
content was supposed to be inaccessible
it was the publishers fault for
including sex after years of legal
back-and-forth the case was finally
settled in 2009 Rockstar traditionally
reveled in their bad boys status but
this was too much even for them they
have refused to ever discuss hot coffee
again and while their games are still as
violent as ever there's no sex to be
found
some claim that the scandal would be the
end of Rockstar as they knew it that the
controversy would drive consumers away
from their products but they forgot the
controversy was rockstars killer app
since its founding in 1998 video game
publisher Rockstar had earned a
reputation as the bad boy of the
electronic world with its signature
Grand Theft Auto series it had helped
drive games in a more mature territory
and turned the nerdy medium into a
mainstream hit with grand theft auto san
andreas in 2004 they had one of the
biggest hits in the history of gaming
but all their good momentum came
crashing down around them when a modder
discovered a hidden portion of the game
and released it to the world the hot
coffee fiasco turned parents and
politicians against the developer with a
whole host of lawsuits filed against the
publisher suddenly their bad-boy
reputation didn't look so hot and while
they never shied away from titles that
push the boundaries of acceptability for
the next few years
Rockstar would set out to prove that
even they could go legit
when the hot coffee fiasco happened
Rockstar already had another
controversial game in the works while
other subdivisions Rockstar Toronto was
tasked with doing rockstars first movie
tie-in the catch the movie was 26 years
old as a violent urban warfare movie The
Warrior's dovetailed nicely into
rockstars view of the world and since it
already had a built-in called audience
Rockstar figured it would be a safe bet
naturally the bloody game that followed
only further cemented the publisher as
terrible Souls trying to corrupt the
world's youth so it was with bated
breath that everyone awaited rock stars
next hyper-violent super sexual
innocence dealer and so in 2006 they
announced table tennis after the
announcement most people expected some
sort of mature twist but all they got
was table tennis the title would be
rockstars first foray into the HD realm
and their first chance to show off their
San Diego studio's new Rockstar advanced
game engine or rage to showcase the new
powerhouse graphics afforded by rage
they chose to make the best ping-pong
simulator they could without any sense
of satire or tongue-in-cheek cynicism
the game was a strong sports title that
received good reviews from a surprised
press the bad boys had proved that they
could make solid family friendly
entertainment even Jack Thompson
couldn't sue this one
so further convince people that they
could make decent games for decent folks
later that same year Rockstar published
fully from their Vancouver branch
despite the title the game actually Pitt
gamers against the bullies fighting back
at them in typical youth prankster
fashion slingshots and wedgies and the
like however even though the game didn't
feature anything more violent than a
schoolyard fistfight just by being a
rock star game especially one about
school children it became controversial
the ever dependable Jack Thompson suited
for being a quote Columbine simulator
there was nothing in the actual game to
be upset at what the controversy proved
was that the very name of Rockstar now
held a meaning to the broader non gaming
community and just like rock and roll
before it it wasn't something older
generations liked but no amount of ping
pong could change who they were rockstar
was born to push boundaries and they
were about to go out of bounds as early
as 2004 they had tasked their Vienna
branch with crafting a follow up to the
2003 grindhouse game manhunt but for
undisclosed reasons they shut the Vienna
studio down in 2006 with no warning as
the poor austrians scrambled for new
jobs manhunt - transferred to London
where rockstars new branch there
finished the game in time for summer
2007 in June of that year they sent the
game out to be rated as usual but the
result stunned them the ultraviolent
title even by Rockstar standards
received an adults-only rating from the
ESRB while the game could still legally
be sold in the United States no console
manufacturer allowed an AO game to be on
its system and no major retailer allowed
an AO game on their shelves so while
technically legal it was effectively
banned in the United States and that was
just the u.s. in the United Kingdom and
other countries around the world the ban
was official if the publisher ever
wanted to see a profit from the game
they
at the tone account rockstar was forced
to censor their own game removing some
of the most violent parts and obscuring
the rest the result was still a twisted
murder fest but rained in enough to be
allowed through the ratings process it
released in October 2007 after all the
controversy it received only middling
reviews but then as with grand theft
auto san andreas hackers managed to
unlock the offending portions of the
game
but this time the ESRB chose not to
rewrite the game stating that Rockstar
had at least told them that the code was
still in the game regardless the
uncensored version finally found its way
to consumers in November of that year as
a direct download for PCs also Jack
Thompson filed a lawsuit
go figure but at the end of the day
manhunt was hardly rockstars primary
focus as always their most important
commodity was grand theft auto and after
four years away from the spotlight GTA
was about to grab it back with a bang
since its founding in 1998 rockstar
games had been instrumental in driving
the medium into more mature territory
with its signature Grand Theft Auto
series it introduced adult themes into a
space that had once been just for kids
needless to say this brought with it its
own share of controversy but Rockstar
took it in stride as they watch their
sales soar but all that came crashing
down around them when in 2004 a hacker
uncovered hidden code in grand theft
auto san andreas for a sex minigame hot
coffee the resulting political and legal
backlash was the company's darkest hour
and for a few years afterwards Rockstar
went legit with friendlier titles like
table tennis and bully but by 2007 the
bad boys of the gaming world had waited
long enough
Rockstar would be going back to what
they did best and they'd be doing it the
best they'd ever done it
for the return to the world of stolen
cars Rockstar would be going HD their
San Diego studio had created an in-house
engine the Rockstar advanced game engine
or rage their newest Grand Theft Auto
game would take rage and use it to
construct the most detailed accurate and
active city ever seen in a video game
and the city they'd be building was
Liberty City their parody version of New
York for all the many places their
series had gone Liberty City was always
the one everything else was compared to
and it was the one setting that always
took place in the modern day the last
time they've gone there was Grand Theft
Auto 3 therefore despite all the other
games between them this trip would be
Grand Theft Auto 4 GTA 4 would bring
with it some major changes to the
franchise some of which had nothing to
do with the game itself every Grand
Theft Auto before it had come to the
PlayStation 2 first and only later came
to other platforms a so-called timed
exclusive but this time the game would
hit both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox
360 simultaneously on top of this
Microsoft then paid rockstar between 50
to 75 million dollars to give the 360
time exclusives on any downloadable
content they'd made for the game the
series that had helped launch the
PlayStation 2 to the top of its class
would now favor the Xbox indeed the
first time GTA 4 was ever announced to
the world was at Microsoft's e3 2006
press conference as a tattoo on Peter
Moore's arm Rockstar spared no expense
on their baby though even he didn't know
for sure Rockstar North producer Leslie
Benzies
guessed the game cost one hundred
million dollars which would make it by
far the most expensive game of all time
and when the rightsholders to the song
walked the night proved impossible to
find Rockstar hired a private
investigator to find them no stone will
be left unturned to make Grand Theft
Auto 4 at the very best it could be
as usual the new GTA was set to come out
in October however due to technical
issues with the next-gen consoles they
were forced to delay the game to spring
2008 while it wasn't what they wanted it
did help drive the game's hype to a
fever pitch after the hot coffee Fiasco
with San Andreas there had been some
question as to whether anybody wanted
Grand Theft Auto anymore the answer was
absolutely yes these pays when the game
finally did release on April 29th 2008
it sold 3.6 million units by midnight a
week later that number was up to 6
million for a total of five hundred
million dollars in seven days the
fastest selling entertainment release in
history it became one of the
highest-rated games of all time often
earning a perfect review score from the
press they done it again gta4 follow the
story of niko bellic an Eastern European
immigrant trying and failing to stay
legit in Liberty city's seedy underworld
it was a sprawling crime epic that
focused on the inner demons of its
heroes both grandiose and intimate at
the same time the tone was more
sophisticated than previous titles
though tongue-in-cheek humor and
over-the-top action we're still in there
the city itself breathed with its own
life citizens had their own schedules
that unfolded with or without the
players intervention GTA 4 was the most
immersive experience Rockstar had ever
made and if that wasn't enough they
would also introduce multiplayer this
time around letting up to 16 players
Duke it out across the entire landscape
combined with the epic story it was a
must have combination except for Jack
Thompson who filed another lawsuit it
would be his last since he would be
disbarred later that year and forbidden
from practicing law rockstar made no
comment but they weren't done with
Liberty City yet having spent so much
time making the city as deep and real as
possible they decided that for their new
downloadable content all they'd have to
do was create a few new missions and
characters and set them all in the same
space the results were almost full games
in their own right with their own huge
story lines and well drawn characters
the lost in the dam and The Ballad of
Gay Tony they are often cited as some of
the finest examples of DLC on the market
and they were even packaged on a disc as
episodes from Liberty City so that even
those not interested in Niko Bellic
could play these titles rockstars next
big title came out of their San Diego
studio Red Dead Redemption what a
pleasant surprise mr. Mosca
where the baptize reinforce the rule
while the rules may not be perfect the
alternative is the title was first shown
in early form at e3 2005 as a
presentation in the PlayStation 3s world
premiere it was used to show off the ps3
power a huge vote of confidence in the
rage engine from Sony it took a little
while to finish off the game since it
didn't release until May 18th 2010 but
when it did it brilliantly showcased
rockstars signature attention to tone
and detail perfectly capturing the feel
of the Western while obviously in the
same franchise as 2004 as Red Dead
Revolver it did not follow the plot or
any of the characters instead Redemption
would take place at the very end of the
Old West in 1911 a period almost never
visited in fiction the massive areas in
the game had both Wild West towns and
all the expanses in between to explore
reviews were absolutely stellar with
critics saying they had mapped the best
parts of GTA into another world
once again they turned a so-so franchise
into a monster success but doing so
didn't come cheap it has been estimated
that the game cost between 80 to 100
million dollars to make twice in a row
Rockstar had spent more money on one
title than any other publisher and if
that wasn't enough they hired Western
director John Hill Co to make them a
30-minute machinima that aired on Fox
clearly they have no sense of limitation
there long time looking forward rockstar
appears to be moving away from GTA at
least for the time being their next big
titles are the long-awaited Max Payne 3
from the Vancouver Studio and the ps3
exclusive cold war game agent from
Rockstar North but no matter what
they're working on one thing they have
achieved consistently is a pitch-perfect
tone and style for each game whether
it's in the neon drenched streets of
Florida or the sweeping vistas of the
Wild West their combination of mature
themes social commentary and escapist
fun have garnered them both hatred from
media watchdogs and glowing praise from
fans and critics one way or the other
they have helped to change the face of
the medium forever and if the past is
any indication their best is yet to come
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