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Rockstar Games

Posted on 13 Aug 2008 at 14:09

Video-game development studio

When Edinburgh-based Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto IV in April, it immediately became the most successful video game ever, selling 3.6 million copies on its first day and grossing more than $500 million in its first week. This success was hard earned, with a team of 150 people working flat-out for four years, at an estimated cost of $100 million; making Rockstar one of a handful of studios in the world able to command such resources. It's an impressive achievement, especially considering the negative press coverage and moral panic generated by a game that essentially revolves around carjacking, killing and organised crime. But, as the old saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

"There's no doubt Rockstar's profited from the controversy," says Phil Elliott, editor of the GamesIndustry.biz website. "Nobody had seen anything like GTA before, and it really captured everybody's imagination. The controversy helped, it gave Rockstar the spotlight to talk about GTA and justify the content to a wider audience."

But it wasn't just a case of style over substance, according to Elliott, who argues that Rockstar's ability to adapt to constantly changing technology is what has set it apart from luminaries such as Bullfrog and Core Design, which were both bought out: "What it did was transition well from a semi-popular, naughty top-down game, which was alright and interesting, into a free-roaming, virtual world. Rockstar has always done very well at that, getting the best out of the technology available."

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Author: Stuart Turton