Rockstar Games, a game publishing company known globally for its huge hits such as the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Series, along with its more controversial side for games such as Manhunt. Rockstar Games, which is owned by Take-Two Interactive, have many subsidiaries that work on a variety of different games and software.
Several video game studios that specialise in certain areas have been purchased by the company and rebranded as a Rockstar studio. So let’s take a look at all the studios that have been and are currently under Rockstar Games.
Rockstar Games
Active since: December 1998
Location: Broadway, New York City
Description: Publishing studio for all the Rockstar subsidiaries. Publishing games such as Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club, Red Dead and more. Along with publishing films such as Football Factory.
Rockstar North
Active since: 1984
Joined Rockstar: 2002
Formerly known as: DMA Design, Acme Software
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Known for: Lead developers of the Grand Theft Auto series, Manhunt series, and helping other studios on projects. This is the main office for Rockstar’s game development.
Rockstar San Diego
Active since: 1984
Joined Rockstar: 2002
Formerly known as: Angel Studios, Inc
Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
Known for: The Red Dead, Midnight Club & Smugglers Run series, along with being the lead studio for the RAGE game engine.
Rockstar Toronto
Active since: 1988
Joined Rockstar: 1999
Formerly known as: Imagexcel, GameTek Canada, Rockstar Canada Inc, Rockstar Toronto Inc, Rockstar Games Toronto Inc.
Location: Lake Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Known for: The Warriors, and supporting other studios on projects such as porting GTA IV & the Story DLC’s on Windows. Most recently making GTA V on PC.
Rockstar Lincoln
Active since: 1992
Joined Rockstar: 2002
Formerly known as: Spidersoft Limited & Tarantula Studios
Location: Lincoln, England
Known for: Dedicated Quality assurance and Localization studio.
Rockstar Leeds
Active since: 1997
Joined Rockstar: 2004
Formerly known as: Möbius Entertainment Limited
Location: Leeds, England
Known for: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories and Chinatown Wars
Rockstar New England
Active since: 1999
Joined Rockstar: 2008
Formerly known as: Mad Doc Software
Location: Ballardvale, Massachusetts
Known for: Bully: Scholarship Edition
Rockstar International
Active since: 2003
Joined Rockstar: 2003
Formerly known as: N/A
Location: London, England
Known for: The international Publishing HQ for Rockstar Games
Rockstar London
Active since: 2005
Joined Rockstar: 2005
Formerly known as: N/A
Location: London, England
Known for: Max Payne 3 & Manhunt 2
Rockstar India
Active since: 2016
Joined Rockstar: 2016
Formerly known as: N/A
Location: Bangalore, India
Known for: GTA Online, GTA VI
Rockstar Dundee
Active since: 2008
Joined Rockstar: 2020
Formerly known as: Ruffian Games
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Known for: Crackdown 2, Halo: Master Chief Collection. No projects announced as of yet under R*
Rockstar Vienna
Active since: 1993 – 2006
Joined Rockstar: 2003 – 2006
Formerly known as: Neo Software Produktions GmbH
Location: Vienna, Austria
Known for: Supporting studios with game development, started developing Manhunt 2 before closing down
Rockstar Vancouver
Active since: 1998
Joined Rockstar: 2002 – 2012 (Merged into R* Toronto, all staff given the option to join any other R* Studio)
Formerly known as: Barking Dog Studios Ltd.
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Known for: Bully & Max Payne 3
Rockstar LA
Active since: 2020
Joined Rockstar: 2023
Formerly known as: Standard Deviation
Location: Santa Monica, Los Angeles, USA
Known for: Standard Deviation are motion capture specialists that were acquired by Rockstar in 2023. They focus on motion capture especially NPCs in their games.
Rockstar Australia
Active since: 2013
Joined Rockstar: 2025
Formerly known as: Video Games Deluxe
Location: Sydney, Australia
Known for: Video Games Deluxe was birthed out of L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi. They worked on L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files before being acquired by Rockstar Games. They went onto fix Grove Street Games’ Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition.
