Rockstar Games

From BMG to Rockstar

In March 1998, Take-Two Interactive bought the assets of BMG Interactive, including the rights to DMA Design's Grand Theft Auto. Several BMG people moved to New York with the deal, among them brothers Sam and Dan Houser and Jamie King. In December 1998 the Housers, King, Terry Donovan and Gary Foreman set up Rockstar Games as Take-Two's high-end label, and the launch was formally announced on January 22, 1999.

Sam Houser still runs the company as president. Dan Houser, long the lead writer, left on March 11, 2020.

A network of studios

Every studio in the group carries the Rockstar name. Rockstar Canada, later Rockstar Toronto, joined first in 1999. DMA Design became Rockstar North in Edinburgh, the lead studio on Grand Theft Auto. Later additions include Rockstar Dundee in 2020 and Rockstar Australia in 2025, built from the Sydney studio Video Games Deluxe. Rockstar also runs its own motion capture studio in Bethpage, New York.

The team working on Grand Theft Auto VI is more than double the size of the one that made Red Dead Redemption 2.

More than Grand Theft Auto

Rockstar's catalog includes Red Dead, Max Payne, Midnight Club, Bully and L.A. Noire. Red Dead Redemption 2, released in 2018, has sold about 87 million copies, which puts it among the ten best-selling games ever made. In 2019 the company launched its own PC launcher, and in 2023 it bought Cfx.re, the team behind the popular FiveM and RedM community platforms.

In March 2014 the British Academy gave Rockstar its BAFTA Fellowship, honoring the company for creating intricately layered interactive worlds.

Living with leaks

Huge anticipation brings huge attention. Early Grand Theft Auto VI footage leaked in September 2022, more clips leaked in August 2026, and Rockstar publicly called the latest leaks heartbreaking for its team. None of it changed the release date, which Take-Two has repeated in every report since November 2025.

Rockstar also tells players that Grand Theft Auto VI contains no generative AI, a point it confirmed during the 2026 pre-order campaign.

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