50 Fun Facts About Rockstar Games

In which city is Rockstar Games headquartered?

New York has been its base since Take-Two, itself a New York company, set the label up in 1998; Grand Theft Auto's Liberty City was already modelled on the city in the 1997 original.

Rockstar was built from the assets of which dormant British publisher?

Take-Two paid 1.85 million shares, about 16% of its stock, for assets that included the original Grand Theft Auto.

Rockstar's founding brothers, Sam and Dan Houser, grew up in which city?

London, the Housers' home city, got a Grand Theft Auto of its own in 1999: the expansion London 1969, where an arrested player is told 'You're Nicked!' rather than 'Busted'.

Which Goodfellas actor voiced Tommy Vercetti, the lead of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City?

Ray Liotta's Tommy talks his way through the whole story, a reversal after Grand Theft Auto III, whose hero never says a word.

Which of Grand Theft Auto V's three playable leads is a retired bank robber living under a new name?

Michael De Santa was presumed dead after a failed heist and bought his quiet life through a secret deal with a federal agent, which his old partner Trevor takes as a betrayal.

Rockstar Australia, formed in 2025 from Video Games Deluxe, is based in which city?

Sydney's Video Games Deluxe had worked with Rockstar for years, on a virtual-reality edition of L.A. Noire and on updates to the remastered GTA trilogy, before it took the Rockstar name.

Which Rockstar franchise is a street-racing series rather than an action-adventure one?

Midnight Club grew out of a 1999 deal with a Californian studio whose racing game for Microsoft had caught Rockstar's eye; Rockstar later bought the studio outright.

Rockstar received which honour at the 2014 BAFTA Games Awards?

The Academy Fellowship, BAFTA's highest honour, went to Rockstar for 'creating intricately layered interactive worlds' that had kept it at the forefront of gaming for over a decade.

Which Al Pacino film did the makers of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City borrow from most heavily?

Scarface gave Vice City its themes, and the team also watched the television series Miami Vice throughout development to capture the look of the 1980s.

Which Finnish studio created Max Payne before Rockstar made the third game itself?

Remedy made the first two Max Payne games, then moved on to Alan Wake and Control, returning only as consultants when Rockstar was finishing the third.

Who hacked Rockstar in 2022, leaking early GTA VI footage?

A British teenager, Arion Kurtaj, broke in from a hotel room using a phone, the room's television and an Amazon Fire Stick while on bail for other hacks; 90 clips of the game leaked.

In 2023 Rockstar bought the team behind which role-play modding platform for Grand Theft Auto V?

FiveM's makers had been banned by Rockstar in 2015 for running what it called an unauthorised service 'designed to facilitate piracy'; eight years later it bought them.

Which genre did Dan Houser tell Famitsu in 2011 that Rockstar was deliberately avoiding?

First-person shooters were what Rockstar's rivals were making, and Houser said it was 'in our DNA to avoid doing what other companies are doing'.

Which journalist published the 2018 account of crunch culture at Rockstar?

Jason Schreier's Kotaku report followed Dan Houser's remark about '100-hour weeks' on Red Dead Redemption 2; staff described weeks of 55 to 60 hours, figures Rockstar disputed.

Which rocker's song 'Love Is a Long Road' played over the first Grand Theft Auto VI trailer in 2023?

Tom Petty was born in Gainesville, Florida, a fitting voice for a game set in a fictional version of his home state, and the trailer sent listeners back to his 1989 album track.

What does the acronym RAGE stand for?

Rockstar Advanced Game Engine: it was built after Electronic Arts bought the maker of RenderWare in 2004, leaving the earlier 3D Grand Theft Autos running on a rival's technology.

Which Rockstar studio led development of the original Red Dead Redemption?

Rockstar San Diego inherited an unfinished Western when Rockstar bought the studio, finished it as Red Dead Revolver and followed it with Red Dead Redemption in 2010.

Which 2006 Rockstar release was the first game built on its RAGE engine?

Table Tennis, of all things, introduced the engine in 2006; the same technology went on to run Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto V.

Under what name did Rockstar launch its online service for player accounts and multiplayer?

Social Club was the name until late 2023, when Rockstar scrapped the branding from its website weeks before unveiling Grand Theft Auto VI.

What is the slow-motion targeting system in Rockstar's Western games called?

Dead Eye slows time so the player can mark several targets and then loose every shot in one burst, a trick the series has kept since its first game in 2004.

Which 2004 film about British soccer hooligans did Rockstar produce?

The Football Factory put a games publisher's name in a cinema's opening titles: Rockstar took an executive producer credit on Nick Love's film of the John King novel.

Which rapper was proposed to star in a $5 million GTA film that Sam Houser turned down around 2001?

Eminem was to star and Top Gun's Tony Scott to direct in the offer a Hollywood agent passed to a friend of the Housers; Sam Houser answered in two words, 'Not interested'.

Rockstar launched the CircoLoco Records label in 2021 with a dance party based where?

Ibiza's Circoloco party and Rockstar set up the label on the strength of a long friendship between Sam Houser and the party's promoter, Antonio Carbonaro.

Rockstar North, the GTA studio, was originally known by what name?

DMA Design took its initials from 'direct memory access' in an Amiga manual; founder David Jones later changed the story, and is said to have joked that they stood for 'Doesn't Mean Anything'.

Before Grand Theft Auto, the studio now called Rockstar North was best known for which game?

Lemmings began as a doodle: a programmer's looping animation of tiny figures marching up a hill into gunfire, made in an Amiga paint package, which the team turned into a game.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, which cousin's tales of riches bring Niko Bellic to Liberty City?

Roman had promised mansions and sports cars, but Niko finds him in a small, dirty flat with an unprofitable cab firm, gambling debts and loan sharks at the door.

In which city is Rockstar North based?

Edinburgh took over when the studio's original Dundee office closed; in 2020 Rockstar went back to Dundee, buying Ruffian Games there and renaming it Rockstar Dundee.

Grand Theft Auto III was delayed so its makers could change content after which event?

The September 11 attacks came weeks before launch, so Rockstar pushed the game back three weeks, repainted police cars that had matched a real force's and cut a mission that mentioned terrorists.

What is the name of GTA III's silent protagonist?

Claude never speaks because, Rockstar later admitted, the team had 'so many other problems to solve' that giving him a voice 'did not seem like a major issue'.

The 'Hot Coffee' scandal involved hidden code in which 2004 GTA title?

San Andreas shipped with a disabled sex minigame still in its code; modder Patrick Wildenborg unlocked it on PC, and Senator Hillary Clinton called for a federal investigation.

Which ESRB rating did Grand Theft Auto's 'Hot Coffee' game get once its hidden scenes emerged?

Adults Only is a rating most American retailers refuse to stock, so Rockstar halted production and reissued a cleaned-up version to win back its Mature rating.

Under what Latin title was Bully released in PAL regions?

Canis Canem Edit means 'dog eat dog'; even under the Latin name, the British chains Currys and PC World refused to stock the game, saying it did not fit a family-friendly image.

Who is the playable hero of Rockstar's Bully?

Jimmy Hopkins is dumped at Bullworth Academy for a year while his mother and her new husband go on honeymoon, and sets about taking over its cliques one by one.

In Manhunt, death-row inmate James Earl Cash is hunted through which fictional setting?

Carcer City is the set of a snuff film: an unseen director promises Cash his freedom only if he kills the gangs sent to hunt him on camera, and the game's graphic violence got it banned in several countries.

Which studio developed L.A. Noire before closing shortly after its release?

Team Bondi fell apart within months of the 2011 release: a report alleging poor working conditions soured its relationship with Rockstar, and it went into administration that August.

What is the name of the LAPD detective at the centre of L.A. Noire?

Cole Phelps, a decorated Marine veteran, climbs the 1947 LAPD until a colleague exposes his affair with a jazz singer; his marriage ends and he is demoted to the Arson desk.

Which facial-capture technology made L.A. Noire's interrogations possible?

MotionScan ringed each actor with 32 cameras, so players could judge a suspect by a twitch or a glance, and the result became the first video game selected for the Tribeca Film Festival.

Max Payne 3 moves its burnt-out former detective to which city?

São Paulo is where Max takes a job guarding a wealthy family, and the kidnapping of his employer's wife drags him into a conspiracy that runs through the whole city.

Which outlaw is Red Dead Redemption 2's main playable character?

Arthur Morgan is the Van der Linde gang's enforcer in 1899, as the Wild West closes in around it; only in the epilogue does the game hand the reins to John Marston, hero of the first Red Dead Redemption.

Which city in Red Dead Redemption 2 stands in for New Orleans?

Saint Denis is where the gang's luck runs out: a bank robbery in the city goes wrong when the Pinkertons step in, and the plan to escape to Tahiti dies with it.

Which soul singer, a devoted Red Dead fan, recorded 'Unshaken' for Red Dead Redemption 2?

D'Angelo was such a fan that he came to Rockstar's offices to play the unfinished game, and his enthusiasm led the music team to ask him for a song.

Which publisher originally funded Red Dead Revolver before Rockstar revived it in 2003?

Capcom funded the Western from 2000 but dropped it after its champion there, Yoshiki Okamoto, left in 2003; Rockstar bought the rights and released it the following year.

The makers of Red Dead Redemption traded under what name before Rockstar bought and renamed them?

Angel Studios began as an animation house, creating the computer imagery for the film The Lawnmower Man, and only turned to video games in the 1990s.

Which Microsoft racing game impressed Rockstar enough to partner with its developer in 1999?

Midtown Madness let players tear around an open recreation of Chicago instead of fixed tracks, the same open-city idea Rockstar was building its own name on.

In Rockstar's The Warriors, the gang must fight its way home to where?

Coney Island is the gang's home turf: falsely accused of murdering a respected gang leader, they have to fight their way back to it from the Bronx through a city full of rivals.

What is the name of the Florida-inspired fictional state in GTA VI?

Leonida takes the series back to Vice City, Rockstar's version of Miami, last visited in the 2000s, and widens the map to the rest of a fictional Florida.

Who are the criminal couple at the centre of GTA VI?

Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos were written, Rockstar says, as 'a Bonnie and Clyde-type narrative': when an easy score goes wrong, the two have only each other to rely on.

Which hip-hop star plays himself in GTA Online's 2021 story The Contract, hiring players to recover his stolen phone?

Dr. Dre's phone holds unreleased music, so the job is to get it back before the tracks leak; he rewards the player with the first listen to his newest song.

Which former Rockstar North president sued Take-Two over unpaid royalties from 2016 to 2019?

Leslie Benzies went on sabbatical in 2014 and says he was locked out when he tried to come back; he claimed $150 million in royalties, and the case ended in a confidential settlement.

How much did Grand Theft Auto V take in its first three days on sale?

$1 billion in three days, $800 million of it on day one: even Red Dead Redemption 2's $725 million opening weekend, the biggest ever, fell short of that launch five years later.