Jump to content

Rockstar Vancouver

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by TheDeviantPro (talk | contribs) at 00:53, 26 November 2016. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Rockstar Games Vancouver ULC
Rockstar Vancouver
Formerly
  • Barking Dog Studios Ltd. (1998–2002)
  • Rockstar Vancouver Inc. (2002–12)
  • Rockstar Games Vancouver Inc. (2012)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo game industry
FoundedMay 1998; 26 years ago (1998-05)
DefunctJuly 9, 2012 (2012-07-09)
FateMerged into Rockstar Toronto
Headquarters
Vancouver, British Columbia
,
Canada
Number of employees
35 (2012)
ParentRockstar Games

Rockstar Games Vancouver ULC (formerly Barking Dog Studios Ltd.), doing business as Rockstar Vancouver, was a video game studio located in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. Rockstar Vancouver developed Bully, a controversial title for the PlayStation 2, on October 17, 2006.[1]

On July 9, 2012, Rockstar Games announced that the studio would be closed in favour of merging the team with Rockstar Toronto at an expanded facility in Oakville, Ontario. The move was financially supported by the Government of Ontario.[2]

History

Barking Dog Studios founded in May 1998 by Glenn Barnes, Christopher Mair, Sean Thompson, Michael Gyori, Peter Grant and Brian Thalken, all former employees of Radical Entertainment. Barking Dog, with publishing assistance by Sierra Studios, moved on to produce an expansion to the 1999 PC Magazine Game of the Year Homeworld entitled Homeworld: Cataclysm. Homeworld had been developed by Relic Entertainment but Sierra chose instead to use Barking Dog to develop the game.

Barking Dog was retained by Valve Software to develop the Beta-5 version beta of the popular first-person shooter Counter-Strike. Their legacy can be seen on the Counter-Strike map de_train where their cartoon dog logo can be seen on the side of a railcar. Barking Dog produced other games such as Global Operations, and Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon. They were acquired by Rockstar Games in August 2002, and became known as Rockstar Vancouver.

Many of Barking Dog's employees later split off to form their own companies, such as Slant Six Games, Big Sandwich Games, Hellbent Games, Kerberos Productions and Ironclad Games.

In 2003, Take-Two mentioned in their financial results that Rockstar Games was working on the Spec Ops franchise but in early 2005 the project was seemingly cancelled.[3][4] It was later revealed that Rockstar Vancouver was the developer of the cancelled Spec Ops project[5] with musician Josh Homme to develop the soundtrack for the game.[6]

Games developed

Title Year Platform(s) Notes
as Barking Dog Studios
Homeworld: Cataclysm 2000 Microsoft Windows
Counter-Strike With Valve
Global Operations 2002
Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon
as Rockstar Vancouver
Bully 2006 PlayStation 2
Max Payne 3 2012 Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 As part of Rockstar Studios

References

  1. ^ Rockstar Games (October 17, 2006). "Rockstar Games: Bully In Stores Now". Rockstar Games. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
  2. ^ "Rockstar Games Expands Toronto Development Studio". Take-Two Interactive. July 9, 2012. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
  3. ^ "Rockstar Hints at Upcoming Games". IGN. February 27, 2003.
  4. ^ "Spec Ops [PS2 – Cancelled]". Unseen64. October 29, 2009.
  5. ^ Ian Sorensen. "Ian Sorensen – Resume". Retrieved April 6, 2012.
  6. ^ "Queens Thrill Fans At New York Gig, Reveal Video Game Plans Rockstar's 'Spec Ops' will feature tunes by Josh Homme, bassist Alain Johannes". MTV. March 22, 2005.


Stub icon

This Rockstar Games-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Stub icon

This Canadian video game corporation or company article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rockstar_Vancouver&oldid=751487775"