The studio will be renamed Rockstar Australia.
Rockstar Games has announced the acquisition of Video Games Deluxe, a studio based in Sydney that it’s been working with for some time. The personal relationships involved go back even further: Video Games Deluxe was founded by Brendan McNamara, who led Team Bondi in the creation of LA Noire before allegations about poor working conditions saw it and Rockstar part ways.
Team Bondi was liquidated in 2011, with McNamara and many key staff moving to the Australian production house Kennedy Miller Mitchell to work on the ill-fated (and cancelled) title Whore of the Orient. Ever the busy bee, McNamara also founded Video Games Deluxe in 2013, since when it has exclusively worked on Rockstar projects: The studio’s collaborations with Rockstar include the 2017 re-release of LA Noire and LA Noire: The VR Case Files. It also did the heavy lifting on Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy–The Definitive Edition after it launched in a bit of a state, and got that title up to scratch.
The press release comes with the usual from Rockstar, which is to say the most banal quotes imaginable. “After working together closely over many years, we are excited to have Video Games Deluxe join the team as Rockstar Australia,” said Rockstar’s Jennifer Kolbe. Not to be outdone, here comes big bad Brendan: “It’s been an honor to work closely with Rockstar Games this past decade. We are thrilled to be a part of Rockstar Games and to continue our efforts to make the best games possible.”
So meet Rockstar Australia! For some reason that name just makes me think of Nick Cave. It doesn’t appear that Video Games Deluxe is especially big in terms of headcount, and the LinkedIn page simply says it’s “looking for experienced programmers to work on something new.” This takes the total number of Rockstar subsidiary studios to ten, plus Rockstar HQ in New York City.
There is one little nugget squirrelled-away in the press release. In the boilerplate text at the bottom about Rockstar itself, it calls Grand Theft Auto “one of the most successful entertainment properties of all time with over 440 million units sold-in worldwide.” This figure did appear in a Take Two earnings call last month but, hey, it’s news to me: And GTA5 is responsible for 210 million of those sales.
Grand Theft Auto 6 remains on-track for this year, though don’t be surprised if Rockstar decides to give itself a little extra time for the spit and polish, and to make it super deluxe. After all, per Strauss Zelnick, the goal is simple: “We’re seeking perfection.”
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