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Rockstar Games, often nicknamed "R星" by Chinese players, is a leading American video game development and publishing subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive. Headquartered in New York City, it originated from BMG Interactive, the game division of BMG Entertainment. The company is globally renowned for its open-world sandbox game franchises including the Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and Max Payne series.
Key moments
December 1998Founded as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive by Sam Houser, Dan Houser and colleagues
January 22, 1999Officially publicly announced
2005Parent company Take-Two launches 2K Games sub-brand to separate its game publishing lines
2008Releases Grand Theft Auto IV and acquires Rockstar Dundee studio
2018Launches the critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption 2
2021Publishes Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition
November 19, 2026Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for release on PS5
Rockstar Games stands among the world's top video game developers and publishers. Its core competitors include:
Activision Blizzard: Creator of the Call of Duty franchise, a dominant player in first-person shooter games with mature online service models.
Ubisoft: Specializes in open-world game series like Assassin's Creed, with a wide range of intellectual property across multiple genres.
Electronic Arts (EA): Leading in sports simulation games, with popular franchises such as EA Sports FC and licensed entertainment game adaptations.
Competitors cover major categories like FPS, open-world, and sports games
Rockstar's key competitive advantages are its high-quality narrative-focused open world designs and long-running online services like GTA Online
Its flagship intellectual properties have sustained commercial success and global popularity for over 20 years
Rockstar Games stands as one of the most influential and high-value brands in the global interactive entertainment industry, built on a 25-plus-year track record of delivering critically acclaimed, commercially successful open-world video game experiences. The brand has cultivated a uniquely loyal global fanbase, where every major new release becomes a cross-cultural event that drives massive sales, widespread media attention, and sustained consumer engagement. Its consistent commitment to creative innovation, narrative depth, and immersive gameplay design has allowed it to establish a unique market position that outperforms most peers in the premium gaming space.
Rockstar’s brand equity is further reinforced by its portfolio of enduring blockbuster intellectual properties, where legacy titles such as Grand Theft Auto V continue to generate substantial revenue and player engagement more than a decade after their initial launch. The brand has maintained its reputation for quality even amid occasional industry controversy, retaining high levels of consumer trust and industry respect. Its ability to balance long development cycles for ambitious new projects with steady ongoing revenue from back catalog sales creates a strong foundation for sustained brand growth.
Brand leadership
Score: 92/100
Rockstar Games holds a clear leadership position in the global open-world sandbox game segment, with its flagship Grand Theft Auto franchise setting long-standing industry standards for gameplay design and cultural impact. The brand consistently shapes trends in interactive entertainment, with new releases often redefining player expectations for what open-world games can achieve, earning it widespread acclaim from critics and consumers alike.
Consumer brand interaction
Score: 88/100
Rockstar maintains high levels of ongoing interaction with its global fanbase through social media, community events, and long-term post-launch support for its major titles, most notably the enduring online modes for Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2. Fans actively engage with Rockstar's intellectual property through fan creations, mods, and ongoing social discourse, creating a self-sustaining community that keeps the brand top of mind between major new releases.
Brand momentum
Score: 85/100
The brand maintains strong momentum heading into the late 2020s, fueled by ongoing consumer demand for its existing catalog and widespread global anticipation for the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto 6. Rockstar continues to grow its user base across new platforms including cloud gaming and next-generation consoles, with its back catalog consistently ranking among the top-selling games year after year, even with long gaps between major new first-party releases.
Brand stability
Score: 90/100
As a wholly owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games benefits from solid financial backing and operational stability, allowing it to take creative risks and invest in multi-year long development cycles for high-quality titles. The brand has maintained a consistent identity and strategic focus for decades, with minimal disruptive management upheaval that would erode its brand positioning. Steady recurring revenue from back catalog sales provides a stable financial foundation for future creative investments.
Brand age
Score: 80/100
Rockstar Games was formally established as an independent brand in 1998, giving it over 25 years of operating history in the global video game industry, enough time to build a strong legacy and widely recognized brand identity across multiple generations of gamers. Its origins stretch back further to BMG Interactive in the early 1990s, giving the brand roots in the early era of 3D gaming that have helped it evolve alongside changing industry trends.
Industry profile
Score: 94/100
Rockstar Games boasts one of the highest public profiles of any brand in the entire video game industry, with every major announcement and release generating global mainstream media coverage that extends far beyond just gaming circles. Its titles are frequently referenced in global popular culture, and the brand is widely recognized by both casual and hardcore gaming audiences alike. It is consistently cited as a benchmark for creative and commercial excellence in game development, influencing countless other studios across the industry.
Global brand globalization
Score: 87/100
Rockstar Games distributes its titles to every major gaming market across the world, with localized versions available in dozens of languages, and its fanbase spans North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. A large majority of the brand's annual revenue comes from international markets outside of its United States headquarters, and it operates development studios across multiple countries to support its global footprint. While it has particularly strong brand recognition in Western markets, its popularity continues to grow rapidly in fast-expanding Asian gaming markets.
AI can support structured reasoning around Rockstar Games' brand value, but any related figures referenced are purely illustrative. For a fully audited, official calculation of Rockstar Games' current brand value, please contact the World Brand Lab directly.
Sam Houser (president)
Jennifer Kolbe (vice president)‡R1R‡
products
Grand Theft Auto
Max Payne
Midnight Club
Red Dead
num employees
>2,000
num employees year
2018
parent
Take-Two Interactive
subsid
See
website
rockstargames.com
Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City.The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive.Founding members of the company were Terry Donovan, Gary Foreman, Dan and Sam Houser, and Jamie King, who worked for Take-Two at the time, and of which the Houser brothers were previously executives at BMG Interactive.Sam Houser heads the studio as president.[2]
Since 1999, several companies acquired by or established under Take-Two have become part of Rockstar Games, such as Rockstar Canada (later renamed Rockstar Toronto) becoming the first one in 1999, and Rockstar Australia the most recent in 2025. All companies organized under Rockstar Games bear the "Rockstar" name and logo. In this context, Rockstar Games is sometimes also referred to as Rockstar New York, Rockstar NY or Rockstar NYC. Rockstar Games also owns a motion capture studio in Bethpage, New York.[2]
Rockstar Games predominantly publishes games in the action-adventure genre, while racing games also saw success for the company.One of such action-adventure game franchises is Grand Theft Auto, which Rockstar Games took over from BMG Interactive, which published the series' original 1997 entry.The most recent main game in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, has sold over 220million copies since its release in September 2013, making it the second-best-selling video game of all time.Other popular franchises published by Rockstar Games are Red Dead, Midnight Club, Max Payne, and Manhunt.
History
On March 12, 1998, Take-Two Interactive announced its acquisition of the assets of dormant British video game publisher BMG Interactive from BMG Entertainment (a unit of Bertelsmann).In exchange, Take-Two was to issue 1.85 million shares (around 16%) of its common stock to BMG Entertainment.[3][4] Through this acquisition, Take-Two obtained several of BMG Interactive's former intellectual properties, including DMA Design's Grand Theft Auto and Space Station Silicon Valley.[5][6] The deal was announced to have closed on March 25.[7] Three BMG Interactive executives—
Company philosophy
In October 2011, Dan Houser told Famitsu that Rockstar Games was intentionally avoiding developing games in the first-person shooter genre, because "it is in our DNA to avoid doing what other companies are doing ... the goalpoint of Rockstar is to have the players really feel what we're trying to do."[40][41] Houser went on to say "Our games up to now have been different from any genre that existed at the time; we made new genres by ourselves with games like the GTA series. We didn't rely on testimonials in a business textbook to do what we've done. ... If we make the sort of games we want to play, then we believe people are going to buy them."[42]
The company has been involved with charitable work ranging from supporting Movember and offering appearances in games as a raffle prize, to charity live streams.[43][44]
Labor relations
In October 2018, Jason Schreier published an account of crunch culture at Rockstar Games. According to Schreier, "Most current and former Rockstar employees said they had been asked or felt compelled to work nights and weekends," with many reporting working an average of 55 to 60 hours a week. Rockstar acknowledged that some employees had worked evenings and weekends, but disputed the average working hours as "individual anecdotes which are usually self-selecting...for the most extreme ends of the scale."[25]
In October 2025, Rockstar fired 30 to 40 employees in Canada and the United Kingdom, citing public discussion and distribution of confidential information; Take-Two Interactive claimed that the firings were "for gross misconduct, and for no other reason".[45][46] The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) denied this and accused the company of union busting, stating the employees were attempting to unionize with labor organizers on Discord.[45][46]
Studios
Outside of its New York City headquarters, Rockstar Games operates several subsidiary studios worldwide.[52] All studios use the Rockstar Games logo with individual colors.[53] As of 2018, the company employs more than 2,000 people across all offices.[54] The studios frequently collaborate and were collectively credited as Rockstar Studios in Max Payne 3,[55] and simply as Rockstar Games in Red Dead Redemption 2.[56][57]
Former
Games
Software
RAGE
Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) is a game engine developed by the Rockstar San Diego-internal RAGE Technology Group, created to facilitate game development on all platforms since 2006.[60] RAGE is 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.[61][62]
Rockstar Games Social Club
Rockstar Games Social Club is an online gaming service created by Rockstar Games for authentication and
Other projects
Rockstar Loft
In 1999, Donovan and Sam Houser cooperated with John Davis to establish the Rockstar Loft club night.Davis had co-founded and been the promoter for Body & Soul, a "no-guestlist, no velvet rope party" held weekly at Tribeca's Club Vinyl.When Rockstar Games' founder originally arrived in New York City, former DJ Donovan was particularly impressed with Body & Soul, and they became close with the club night's team, including Davis and its other founder, DJ François K. Davis had sought to establish further such events, while Donovan and Houser wanted to get publicity for the young Rockstar Games, thus they established Rockstar Loft. According to Donovan, the event was to serve as an alternative those that were overly expensive or had attendees "bulldozed by security". He precluded video game installations at the venue to focus on the music and highlight the artists.[66]
As it could not afford frequent television advertisements, Rockstar Games resorted to guerrilla marketing teams distributing fly posters and stickers. Tickets for Rockstar Loft were originally not sold in advance. Instead, potential guests were to call a phone number and face seven questions regarding their personality. If answered to the liking of the operator, the caller would receive their entry ticket in the mail.[66]
In January 2007, Take-Two announced that Donovan, until then managing director for Rockstar Games, had left the company following a four-month leave of absence.[15] He was succeeded by Gary Dale, who became chief operating officer.[16] Dale previously worked with the Houser brothers and King at BMG Interactive, but left the company when it was acquired by Take-Two Interactive, and joined Capcom's European operations as managing director in 2003.[17][18]
As of February 2014, Rockstar Games titles have shipped more than 250 million copies,[19] the largest franchise being the Grand Theft Auto series, which alone has shipments of at least 250 million as of November 2016.[20]Grand Theft Auto V shipped the highest number of units within the series' and the company's history, with over 220 million copies,[21] making it the second best-selling video game of all time.[22]
At the 10th British Academy Games Awards in March 2014, Rockstar Games was honored with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award for "creating intricately layered interactive worlds that have kept the company at the forefront of the gaming industry for over a decade, both critically and commercially".[23][24] Jennifer Kolbe, who started at the front desk of Take-Two, acts as Rockstar Games' head of publishing and oversees all development studios.[2][25] Simon Ramsey is the company's head of PR and communications.[25]
In May 2019, Rockstar Games announced that they were acquiring Dhruva Interactive from Starbreeze Studios for US$7.9 million, with the sale being finalized later that month and the Dhruva team merged into Rockstar India.[26][27]
In September 2019, Rockstar Games announced that it had released its own game launcher, a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications service.[28] After having taken an extended break following the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in early 2019, Dan Houser left Rockstar Games on March 11, 2020.[29]
The company acquired the Scottish studio Ruffian Games in October 2020, rebranding the studio as Rockstar Dundee.[30]
In September 2022, Rockstar was the target of a data breach in which 90 videos from the development of Grand Theft Auto VI were leaked.[31][32] Rockstar described the leak as a "network intrusion", and noted that it was "extremely disappointed" by the manner in which the game was first demonstrated, but that it did not anticipate long-term effects on development.[33]
In August 2023, Rockstar acquired Cfx.re (CitizenFX), the team behind the modding platforms FiveM and RedM for Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 respectively.[34][35][36] Michael Unsworth, vice president of writing, departed the company in 2023 after sixteen years.[37] In March 2025, Rockstar announced it would acquire Sydney-based studio Video Games Deluxe, consisting of former L.A. Noire developers, and rename it Rockstar Australia.[38]
In April 2026, Rockstar was targeted by the ShinyHunters hacking group, who threatened to leak information on April 14.In a statement to Kotaku, Rockstar confirmed the breach and stated the incident has "no impact on our organization or our players".[39]
Alex Marshall, president of the IWGB, called the firings the "most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry".
In December 2025, Labour MP Chris Murray raised the issue at Prime Minister's Questions after meeting with the affected workers.[49] In response, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the firings were "deeply concerning" and said that the Government would investigate.[50]
In January 2026, a preliminary hearing by the Glasgow Employment Tribunal to assess providing interim relief (i.e., that Rockstar should continue paying the staff until a full hearing) rejected this, stating it did not appear likely that a full hearing would find trade union membership as the principal reason for dismissal.[51]
Rockstar Games released its own games launcher for Windows on September 17, 2019.The launcher integrates with the user's Social Club account, allowing them to download and buy games that they have previously purchased through Rockstar's store, as well as launch Rockstar games available from other services, like Steam, from the launcher.[65]
The first Rockstar Loft was held in western
Chelsea, Manhattan
, on October 30, 1999, with Andi Hanley (a regular of Body & Soul),
Kirk Ewing—a friend of the Houser brothers who had worked with Rockstar Games on State of Emergency—stated that, around the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001, Rockstar Games had been offered US$5 million for a film based on the Grand Theft Auto franchise.He had received a phone call from a producer in Los Angeles requesting the rights for a film to be directed by Tony Scott of Top Gun and starring rapper Eminem.When he relayed this proposal to Sam Houser, Houser said that he was not interested.[69] In 2004, Rockstar Games produced the sports drama film The Football Factory.Based on the book of the same name by John King, the film revolves around organized football hooliganism in the United Kingdom.[70] The company also produced Sunday Driver, a documentary about the Majestics Lowrider Club in Compton, California, and The Introduction, an animated film that details the events leading up to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.Both were bundled with the game's special edition released in 2005.[71]
CircoLoco Records
In May 2021, Rockstar Games launched the record label CircoLoco Records in collaboration with Circoloco, an Ibiza-based dance party. The collaboration grew from a friendship between Sam Houser and Circoloco's promoter, Antonio Carbonaro. According to Nick Benedetti, the party's manager, Rockstar Games and Circoloco intended to "contribute something new and meaningful" to the dance music scene, which had faced hardships because of the lockdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.[72] CircoLoco Records' first release, Monday Dreamin', was released as a series of extended plays starting in June 2021.[66][72]
