Rockstar San Diego
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Rockstar San Diego, Inc. (formerly Angel Studios, Inc.) is an American video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Carlsbad, California. The studio is best known for developing the Midnight Club and Red Dead series.
The Colombian entrepreneur Diego Angel founded the company as Angel Studios in January 1984 after studying film in Chicago, where he had grown fond of computer animation. The studio began with a focus on animation and visual effects for multimedia productions, such as advertisements, films, and music videos. Notable works include the film The Lawnmower Man and the music video for Peter Gabriel's song "Kiss That Frog". Angel Studios began working in the video game industry during the 1990s, creating cutscenes for Ed Annunziata's Ecco: The Tides of Time (1994) and Mr. Bones (1996). The company fully developed games with Nintendo (Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest) and Microsoft (Midtown Madness and Midtown Madness 2), and it produced a port of Capcom's Resident Evil 2 for the Nintendo 64.
Rockstar Games was impressed with the studio's work on Midtown Madness and offered a long-term partnership in 1999, which resulted in the creation of the Midnight Club and Smuggler's Run series. The publisher's parent company, Take-Two Interactive, acquired Angel Studios in November 2002 and integrated it with Rockstar Games as Rockstar San Diego. Angel left the studio in May 2005 and returned to Colombia. Since 2004, Rockstar San Diego has operated an internal game engine team that develops Rockstar Games's proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, which is used in most of the publisher's titles. The studio led the development of further Midnight Club games, Red Dead Revolver (2004), Red Dead Redemption (2010), and its expansion pack Undead Nightmare. It collaborated with other Rockstar Games studios on Max Payne 3 (2012), Grand Theft Auto V (2013), and Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018).
HistoryEdit
Early years in animation (1984–1993)Edit
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Wanting to become a film director, Diego AngelTemplate:Efn moved from Medellín, Colombia, to Chicago in 1971, when he was in his early 20s.<ref name="Polygon: Two days" /> He enrolled at Columbia College Chicago to study film and attended the Art Institute of Chicago.<ref name="Polygon: Two days" /><ref name="Standard-Speaker: Home" /> During his studies, Angel grew fond of computer animation, describing computers as "the future of art".<ref name="Polygon: Two days" /><ref name="Times-Advocate: future" /> In 1984, Angel moved with his wife and two children from Chicago to San Diego because he had friends and relatives there, and because the Spanish-language street names and proximity to the Spanish-speaking Mexico made him feel at home.<ref name="Polygon: Two days" /><ref name="Standard-Speaker: Home" /> He established Angel Studios as a work-for-hire animation studio in January 1984 in nearby Carlsbad.<ref name="Polygon: How" /><ref name="Polygon: Two days" /> Angel obtained a computer and an office but, within a few days, realized he could not run a business and be an art director at the same time, while also lacking the knowledge to operate the computers. He consequently hired an art director and a system operator.<ref name="Polygon: Two days" /> Angel Studios did not find a paying client for its first six months in operation and garnered only Template:US$ in revenue in its first year.<ref name="Standard-Speaker: Home" /> Angel said he was "suffering" due to a scarcity of work in the company's first two years in business.<ref name="Polygon: Two days" /> The company's first project was an educational video for the University of California, San Diego, followed by commercials for Nintendo, Polaroid Corporation, Asiana Airlines, and Cobra Golf, among others.<ref name="Times-Advocate: future pt2" /><ref name="North County Blade-Citizen: Fore" /> Other early projects were productions for NASA and Rohr Industries, as well as animated logos for Home Box Office and ESPN.<ref name="Standard-Speaker: Home" />
After the first year, the brother-in-law of Angel's wife invested in the company, while Angel secured a bank loan.<ref name="Standard-Speaker: Home" /> In the second year, revenues reached Template:US$ and by 1989, Angel Studios had six employees and Template:US$ worth of equipment. To ensure key employees would remain with the company, Angel made three of them partners in March 1989.<ref name="Standard-Speaker: Home" /> Brad Hunt, Angel Studios's chief technology officer, and Michael Limber, the chief operating officer and later chief creative officer, were among the founding partners.<ref name="The Daily Item: CTO/COO" /><ref name="VentureBeat: XGirl" /><ref name="Playing at the Next Level: Page 262" /> The company grew to 12 employees by February 1993.<ref name="Times-Advocate: future pt2" /> Angel used a philosophy he called the "three P's" (passion, patience, and perseverance), which meant he would not accept every offer that came his way, choosing instead to only accept projects that showcased his team and its technology.<ref name="Polygon: How" /> Studio employees said that Angel treated them like family: he paid them well, gave them plenty of vacation time, and occasionally shared a bottle of Patrón-brand tequila on Friday afternoons, an event he called "Sippy Wippy".<ref name="Polygon: How" /><ref name="Polygon: Agent" />
Much of the 3D work produced by Angel Studios was for films and music videos.<ref name="Polygon: How" /><ref name="Igromania: World Fame" /> Successes came with the computer-generated imagery and visual effects in the 1992 film The Lawnmower Man and the music video for Peter Gabriel's song "Kiss That Frog".<ref name="Polygon: How" /><ref name="Game Informer: Unlikely Movie Games" /> One of the two major scenes the studio produced for The Lawnmower Man is considered the first virtual sex scene.<ref name="WaPo: Lawnmower Man" /><ref name="CU Amiga: Lawnmower Man" /> For this project, the company's team consisting of Hunt, Limber, and Jill Knighton Hunt developed Scenix, a software set that provided a "visual programming language".<ref name="ACE: Scenix" /><ref name="Wired: Dollar a Minute" /> By March 1992, Angel Studios was working on a virtual reality game adaptation of its scenes from the movie.<ref name="The Arizona Republic: Sorcery" /> The "Kiss That Frog" music video was part of a simulator ride exhibited in an 18-seat mobile theater, the Mind Blender, which went on tour in 1993.<ref name="The Joy of CyberSex: Mind Blender" /><ref name="WaPo: Mind Blender" /> The video received the "Best Special Effects in a Video" award at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards.<ref name="Polygon: How" /><ref name="The Free Library: Dream Team" /> For The Enertopia Symphony, a 13-minute short film that was shown at the Electric Energy Pavilion at Expo '93, the studio produced a six-and-a-half-minute stereoscopic animation from live-action 3D photography directed by Peter Anderson.<ref name="3-D Revolution: Page 151" /> It contracted the agency Spear/Hall & Associates to handle its marketing in August 1993.<ref name="Adweek: Account acquisitions" />
Entry into video games (1993–2000)Edit
During the early 1990s, Angel Studios collaborated on tech demos for Silicon Graphics's high-end computers and received some of these computers in return. One of Silicon Graphics's clients was Genyo Takeda of Nintendo, who was impressed with Angel Studios's work. He met with the company and signed an agreement that made Angel Studios a partner for Nintendo's upcoming Nintendo 64 console.<ref name="Polygon: How" /> The studio shifted its focus to video game development and Nintendo announced it as one of the studios on its "Dream Team" of external partners for the Nintendo 64 in February 1995.<ref name="Polygon: How" /><ref name="The Free Library: Dream Team" /> Around this time, Angel consciously steered the studio away from "high-risk, capital-intensive" projects, even if they offered rich potential. Limber cited Angel's business decisions as the biggest factor in the company's survival of the dot-com bubble, which severely impacted the San Diego-area multimedia industry.<ref name="San Diego U-T: Before the bubble" /> In retrospect, Angel said he never had a business plan or mission statement and made decisions by gut feeling.<ref name="Polygon: Two days" /> Around this time, Angel Studios accepted game designer Ed Annunziata's pitch to create cutscenes for the Sega CD version of Ecco: The Tides of Time. Pleased with the result, Annunziata invited the studio to work on cutscenes for his next game, Mr. Bones for the Sega Saturn.<ref name="Playing at the Next Level: Page 262" /> That game was released in 1996 with cutscenes and additional artwork by Angel Studios.<ref name="Polygon: How" /><ref name="Igromania: World Fame" />
As part of Nintendo's "Dream Team", the company developed two sports games featuring the American baseball player Ken Griffey Jr.—Major League Baseball and Slugfest—which were released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998 and 1999, respectively.<ref name="San Diego U-T: Before the bubble" /><ref name="IGN: Slugfest" /> Although critics praised both games, Angel decided against making further sports titles, declaring that Angel Studios was "not a sports company".<ref name="San Diego U-T: Before the bubble" /> The studio continued its work for the Nintendo 64, collaborating with the Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto on a vehicular combat game titled Buggie Boogie.<ref name="Nintendo Life: Miyamoto" /> Miyamoto issued three-month contracts to the company, not retaining any documents and returning every three months to check on the game's progress.<ref name="Gamasutra: High Moon Shining" /> Angel Studios spent 45 days creating a "design bible" for its first meeting with Miyamoto, who rejected it and asked the studio to "find the fun" over the next three months.<ref name="Polygon: Two days" /> The game would have seen vehicles consume each other, absorbing their DNA to obtain their powers.<ref name="Nintendo Life: Miyamoto" /> After six to nine months, the title was canceled as Nintendo prioritized a prototype of Diddy Kong Racing.<ref name="Gamasutra: High Moon Shining" /><ref name="NextGen: Buggie Boogie" /> Angel Studios was left with a "well-polished" tech demo it used to pitch its development services to other publishers.<ref name="NextGen: Buggie Boogie" /> Upon Miyamoto's request, the team began working on a fantasy golf game.<ref name="Gamasutra: High Moon Shining" />
In late 1997, Angel Studios was contracted to develop a port of Capcom's PlayStation game Resident Evil 2 for the Nintendo 64.<ref name="Gamasutra: Resident Evil 2" /> According to Angel, this was the first collaboration between Capcom and a video game company outside Japan.<ref name="Polygon: How" /> The development had a budget of Template:US$ and the work was done in two years by nine full-time developers.<ref name="Gamasutra: Resident Evil 2" /><ref name="Kotaku: How Much" /> The port was released in November 1999 and was considered a success: The studio condensed the game's data to less than 10% of its original size, fitting the original version's two compact discs onto a single Nintendo 64 cartridge.<ref name="Gamasutra: Resident Evil 2" /><ref name="Eurogamer: DF Retro" /> In a 2018 retrospective on Resident Evil 2 and its ports, EurogamerTemplate:'s John Linneman called the conversion "one of the most ambitious console ports of all time".<ref name="Eurogamer: DF Retro" /> Matt Casamassina of IGN opined the port marked the studio as fit to develop for Nintendo's recently announced Project Dolphin console, which became the GameCube.<ref name="IGN: Sweet Dreams" /> Angel attributed much of his company's early video game success to his good relationships with Asian publishers.<ref name="Polygon: How" />
Another Angel Studios project was Ground Effect, a hovercraft racing game that was due to be published in February 1998 by Inscape before it was acquired by Graphix Zone in February 1997.<ref name="PC PowerPlay: Ground Effect" /><ref name="CSoon: Graphix Zone" /> Angel Studios's film Oceania was exhibited at the Virtual Reality Pavilion of Expo '98.<ref name="Publico: Oceania" /> The studio contributed to an adventure ride called Virtual Jungle Cruise, which debuted at the June 1998 opening of the first DisneyQuest interactive theme park in Orlando, Florida.<ref name="IEEE: Magic Kingdom" /> Interactive Light published Angel Studios's beat 'em up-style arcade video game Savage Quest in 1999.<ref name="Retro Gamer: Savage Quest" /> Around this time, Angel proposed the development of a racing game despite market saturation.<ref name="San Diego U-T: Before the bubble" /> He encouraged his employees to work independently and take ownership over the game's individual parts. This policy was considered a major factor in the game's resulting quality.<ref name="Gamasutra: Scrum" /> The game was released as Midtown Madness in May 1999 as part of Microsoft's Madness racing game franchise.<ref name="GameSpot: Goes Gold" /> Fred Marcus, a designer and programmer on the project, stated the studio's impressive physics demos were key to its publishing contracts.<ref name="Gamasutra: Physics" /> The game was followed by Midtown Madness 2, developed by Angel Studios and released in 2000.<ref name="Eurogamer: Midtown Madness 2" /> The studio continued working with Microsoft on a game involving a virtual girlfriend, planned as an Xbox launch title called XGirl.<ref name="VentureBeat: XGirl" /> Sky Pirates VR, a pirate-themed attraction based on Steven Spielberg's "vertical reality" system, was exhibited in GameWorks theme parks. The attraction debuted in Detroit in 2000 and expanded to Schaumburg, Illinois, by December of that year.<ref name="XVG: Sky Pirates VR" /><ref name="Chicago Tribune: Sky Pirates VR" />
Rockstar Games deals and acquisition (2000–2003)Edit
Rockstar Games, an American video game publisher, became interested in working with Angel Studios after the release of Midtown Madness and wanted to use their combined expertise to develop what became the Midnight Club and Smuggler's Run series.<ref name="IGN: Red Dead" /> As part of their relationship, Angel Studios worked on Oni 2: Death & Taxes, a canceled sequel to the 2001 game Oni, itself owned by Rockstar Games's parent company, Take-Two Interactive.<ref name="Eurogamer: Oni 2" /><ref name="Kotaku: Cult Classic" /> In a November 2000 interview, Rockstar Games's Sam Houser said: "I love Angel Studios ... I am not going to stop working with them."<ref name="IGN: Rockstar Envisions" /> Daily Radar ranked Angel Studios fourth on its 2001 list of the five best developers for Sony platforms, citing the strength of Midnight Club: Street Racing and the first Smuggler's Run game on the PlayStation 2.<ref name="Daily Radar: Award" />
Around 2002, Angel discussed selling his company with Microsoft, Activision, and Rockstar Games. He had befriended Sam Houser and his brother Dan, also at Rockstar Games, over a shared love for tequila. The company sought to acquire Angel Studios's Angel Game Engine as a proprietary game engine to replace Criterion Games's RenderWare, which it had used for the Grand Theft Auto series. Rockstar Games initially put forward what Angel considered a low-ball. When he did not respond, the publisher presented an offer Angel said he could not refuse and convinced him that the studio would have the creative freedom he wanted.<ref name="Polygon: How" /> Take-Two announced it had acquired Angel Studios on November 20, 2002.<ref name="GameSpot: Angel Studios acquired" /><ref name="Gamasutra: The End Game" /> It paid Template:US$ in cash, 235,679 shares of restricted common stock (valued at Template:US$), and Template:US$ in prepaid royalties; a total price of Template:US$.<ref name="Take-Two Interactive: 2003 Annual Report" /> Angel Studios and its 125 employees were integrated with Rockstar Games as Rockstar San Diego.<ref name="Polygon: How" /><ref name="Gamasutra: Rockstar Roster" /> The headcount increased to 230 by 2003.<ref name="Revista Credencial: Angel of video games" /> As part of a cultural shift that some employees felt was abrupt, Rockstar Games scrapped the studio's policy of a week-long recesses for all employees after each game's launch.<ref name="Polygon: Agent" />
Initial post-acquisition projects (2003–2006)Edit
After the acquisition, Rockstar Games executives reviewed the studio's development projects to determine what was worth keeping. Dan Houser noted Red Dead Revolver, which he described as "this cowboy game that looked very good", caught the review team's attention despite being unplayable.<ref name="IGN: Red Dead" /> The project stemmed from Angel Studios's and Capcom's partnership on the Resident Evil 2 port: Capcom's Yoshiki Okamoto had approached the studio with the idea for an original intellectual property titled S.W.A.T., a third-person shooter involving a seven-piece SWAT team. This later adopted a Western theme at Okamoto's recommendation.<ref name="Polygon: How" /> Angel Studios began work on the game in 2000 with Capcom's supervision and funding.<ref name="IGN: Red Dead Interview" /><ref name="IGN: Capcom Unveils" /> The development was troubled, partly due to cultural differences between the two companies, and the game remained unplayable.<ref name="Polygon: How" /> After Okamoto left Capcom, the company stopped funding the game in July 2003 and formally canceled it in August.<ref name="Polygon: How" /><ref name="GameSpot: Capcom no longer" /><ref name="GameSpot: Capcom cancels" /> Rockstar Games acquired Red Dead Revolver from Capcom and resumed its development by December of that year.<ref name="GameSpot: Rockstar rescues" /><ref name="IGN: Rockstar Announces" /> The crunch at Rockstar San Diego increased for a rapid release of the game, which came in May 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.<ref name="Polygon: How" />
In 2003, Rockstar San Diego began developing Agent, an open-world stealth game for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, under the leadership of the producer Luis Gigliotti.<ref name="Polygon: Agent" /><ref name="VG247: Another E3" /> The concept for an untitled Justice League game was scrapped in favor of Agent. Unlike previous Angel Studios games, the prototype stage for Agent began with a full-size team, which was given little time to complete the prototype, leading to crunch at the studio. Artists from the company traveled to Cairo and Washington, D.C., two of the settings for Agent, to capture reference photographs.<ref name="Polygon: Agent" /> The four artists who traveled to Cairo took more than 10,000 pictures.<ref name="Kotaku: Talking To The PS4" /> When police detained artists for their photography in both locations, the situation in D.C. was quickly resolved while the one in Cairo took significantly more time, and the development continued once both teams had returned. At the same time, Rockstar Games and the Houser brothers kept requesting changes so frequently the studio could not keep up, causing further crunch. Three people connected to the studio—one active employee and two former employees—died during this time, adding to a toxic studio culture. After a year of work, Gigliotti left the studio and formed Concrete Games for the publisher THQ. Eleven of AgentTemplate:'s lead developers immediately followed Gigliotti and several Red Dead Revolver leads were put in charge of Agent to compensate for these departures. Under the new leadership, the developers spent another year upgrading the internal game engine for Agent.<ref name="Polygon: Agent" /> Shortly thereafter, the game was put on hold indefinitely.<ref name="Polygon: Agent" /><ref name="VG247: Agent listed" /> The sister studio Rockstar North, which had been keen to create a game in that style, began working on a game of the same name that impressed developers at Rockstar San Diego. Although announced in 2009, this game was considered a distraction from the studio's other projects and canceled within a few years.<ref name="Polygon: Agent" /><ref name="RPS: Vermeij" />
After Electronic Arts acquired Criterion Games in 2004, Rockstar San Diego established the RAGE Technology Group team to develop the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) from the Angel Game Engine.<ref name="Polygon: Agent" /><ref name="GameStar: RAGE" /> The engine was introduced with Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis, which was also developed by the studio and released for the Xbox 360 and Wii in 2006.<ref name="Kotaku: That Time" /> RAGE went on to be used in most of Rockstar Games's titles for personal computers and consoles, including Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto IV, Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto V, and Red Dead Redemption 2.<ref name="Digital Spy: Table Tennis" /><ref name="Eurogamer: RAGE" /> Angel, until then Rockstar San Diego's president, had been working from the studio's offices, Rockstar Games's New York City headquarters, and Colombia since the acquisition and eventually decided not to renew his contract with Rockstar Games. The Houser brothers tried to persuade him to stay, but Angel felt homesick and left the company in May 2005 to return to Colombia.<ref name="Polygon: How" /><ref name="Polygon: Two days" /> In Medellín, he tried to create game development opportunities, including through a master's degree in video game programming at EAFIT University.<ref name="Dinero: Genius" /><ref name="Polygon: Two days" /> These attempts ultimately faltered due to a lack of government support and talent in the area.<ref name="Polygon: Two days" /> Alan Wasserman, who had joined Rockstar San Diego in 2003, became the studio's general manager in Angel's place.<ref name="Gamasutra: Angel in Disguise" /> The studio opened two paid internship positions for Entertainment Technology Center students in December 2005 and soon began recruiting employees to produce next-generation games.<ref name="BizJournals: ETC" /><ref name="IGN: Prepares for Next-Gen" />
Red Dead Redemption and labor issues (2006–2011)Edit
In August 2006, two former Rockstar San Diego 3D artists—Terri-Kim Chuckry and Garrett Flynn—filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of over 100 ex-employees, claiming unpaid overtime compensation.<ref name="Engadget: Lawsuit" /> The case, Garrett Flynn, et al. v. Angel Studios, Inc./Rockstar Games et al., was prepared with assistance from Thomas Urmy Jr. of the law firm Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP, and it was settled out of court in April 2009 with Rockstar Games awarding the former employees Template:US$.<ref name="Engadget: Lawsuit" /><ref name="WaPo: crunch legal" /> The wives of several Rockstar San Diego employees, under the pseudonym "Rockstar Spouse", published an open letter in January 2010, alleging executives had imposed poor working conditions on studio developers since March 2009.<ref name="Eurogamer: Rockstar Spouse" /><ref name="IGN: Rockstar Wives" /> This was followed by several former employees anonymously and publicly describing similar experiences.<ref name="Gamasutra: Controversy Erupts" /><ref name="Game Informer: Dirty Laundry" /> While a former staffer at Rockstar Games confirmed the post's allegations,<ref name="MTV: Staffer Confirms" /> Rockstar Games denied all claims and said it was "saddened if any former members of any studio did not find their time here enjoyable or creatively fulfilling".<ref name="GameSpot: Rockstar saddened" /><ref name="Kotaku: Saddened" /> The International Game Developers Association described the alleged working conditions as "deceptive, exploitative, and ultimately harmful".<ref name="Kotaku: IGDA Condemns" />
In January 2010, it was reported that the company management had gradually laid off employees working on the Midnight Club series and outsourced its development. Other key employees quit rather than work on Red Dead Redemption.<ref name="GameSpot: Midnight Club canceled" /><ref name="Engadget: jeopardy" /> During the development of Red Dead Redemption, mismanagement led to delays and increased development costs.<ref name="Engadget: development in trouble" /> Two months after the game's May 2010 release, about 40 of Rockstar San Diego's 180 staff members were laid off.<ref name="Gamasutra: Typical Layoffs" /><ref name="Ars Technica: Rockstar cleans house" /> Steve Martin, who had been a producer at the studio since 2009, succeeded Wasserman as the studio manager.<ref name="Ars Technica: Rockstar cleans house" /><ref name="PCGI: Tencent" /> The studio headcount shrank to 128 employees by February 2011.<ref name="San Diego U-T: Rockstar conquers" /> Red Dead Redemption became a commercial and critical success, selling 13 million copies within two years. Speaking to investors, Take-Two's chief executive officer, Strauss Zelnick, announced that the game would become one of the company's strategic "permanent franchises".<ref name="IGN: Sequel Coming" /><ref name="VideoGamer.com: Take-Two CEO" /> The game won several year-end accolades, including multiple Game of the Year awards.<ref name="San Diego U-T: Rockstar conquers" /> Business Insider found that, as of 2022, Red Dead Redemption was the 40th-best game ever made when measured by critical reception scores.<ref name="Business Insider: best video games" />
Development collaborations (2011–present)Edit
Beginning in 2011, Rockstar San Diego largely cooperated with other Rockstar Games studios. It played a supporting role (alongside Rockstar North and Rockstar Leeds) in the development of Team Bondi's 2011 game L.A. Noire. For 2012's Max Payne 3, Rockstar San Diego was part of Rockstar Studios, a collaborative effort of all Rockstar Games studios.<ref name="Kotaku: Joke is Unmissable" /><ref name="VG247: Max Payne 3" /> To expand, the studio was hiring further employees by February 2012.<ref name="Digital Spy: new open-world game" /><ref name="VideoGamer.com: new open-world game" /> Rockstar Games then paid Template:US$ in August 2014 to renew its lease on Rockstar San Diego's Template:Convert of office space in the Faraday Corporate Center in Carlsbad for eight years.<ref name="San Diego Source: Faraday lease" /> The studio collaborated with Rockstar North on Grand Theft Auto V, which was released in 2013.<ref name="Polygon: GTA V" /><ref name="IGN: GTA V Release Date" /> More recently, the company was one of eight studios that worked on Red Dead Redemption 2, which came out in 2018.<ref name="USA Today: Red Dead Redemption 2" /><ref name="GQ: Red Dead Redemption 2" /> The development of that game again faced allegations of labor issues. Some employees reported that they were ordered to work overtime, frequently doing 80-hour weeks.<ref name="Kotaku: Culture Of Crunch" /> In July 2019, Martin left the company, later joining the Chinese conglomerate Tencent and opening the subsidiary studio Lightspeed LA.<ref name="PCGI: Tencent" /><ref name="GamesRadar+: Tencent" /> In his place, Rockstar San Diego re-hired its former technical director Tom Shepherd in September 2019, after he had been with The Initiative for 14 months. He and the art director Joshua Bass were appointed the joint studio heads.<ref name="Yahoo! Finanzas: Shepherd" /><ref name="History Hit: Bass" /> In September 2021, Rockstar Games leased the entirety of the Pacific View Corporate Center in Carlsbad—Template:Convert—from Drawbridge Realty.<ref name="Newmark: Pacific View" /><ref name="Kidder Mathews: Pacific View" />
Games developedEdit
As Angel StudiosEdit
As Rockstar San DiegoEdit
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) | Notes | Template:Refh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Midnight Club II | PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox | Rockstar Games | Template:Centered | |
| SpyHunter 2 | PlayStation 2, Xbox | Midway Games | Template:Centered | ||
| 2004 | Red Dead Revolver | Rockstar Games | Template:Centered | ||
| 2005 | Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition | PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox | Template:Centered | ||
| 2006 | Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix | PlayStation 2, Xbox | Template:Centered | ||
| Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis | Wii, Xbox 360 | Template:Centered | |||
| 2008 | Midnight Club: Los Angeles | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | Template:Centered | ||
| 2010 | Red Dead Redemption | Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360 | Also developed the expansion pack Undead Nightmare (2010) | Template:Centered | |
| 2011 | L.A. Noire | Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Supportive development for Team Bondi | Template:Centered | |
| 2012 | Max Payne 3 | macOS, PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 | Developed as part of Rockstar Studios | Template:Centered | |
| 2013 | Grand Theft Auto V | PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S | Supportive development for Rockstar North | Template:Centered | |
| 2018 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One | Developed as part of Rockstar Games | Template:Centered |
CanceledEdit
- Ground Effect<ref name="PC PowerPlay: Ground Effect" />
- Buggie Boogie<ref name="Nintendo Life: Miyamoto" />
- XGirl<ref name="VentureBeat: XGirl" />
- Oni 2: Death & Taxes<ref name="Kotaku: Cult Classic" />
- Agent<ref name="Polygon: Agent" />Template:Efn
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Template:Portal bar Template:Rockstar San Diego Template:Rockstar Games Template:Take-Two Interactive Template:Nintendo developers Template:Authority control