Big moves for Rockstar

Ain't no rest for the wicked

Love 'em or hate them (and after that stunt with announcing yet another re-release for GTA V I'm certainly leaning the other way) Rockstar are probably one of the most well known studios in the world, and I'm not just talking about gaming spaces. Their antics, big or small, are covered by all sides of the media, mainstream or otherwise, all desperate to get a scoop on the studio well known for courting controversy even though nowadays their games are honestly some of the most tame on the market, when it comes to challenging controversial issues, that is. (Unless you're someone who gets really offended by someone telling you that the American dream is a lie and consumerism has taken over our lives... cause that's pretty much their schtick) Thus, when Rockstar do something as significant as buy over a brand new studio and rebrand it under their banner, you'll know that's going to raise some eyebrows before the evening's out, not least of all mine. There's actually been a couple of quite interesting developments regarding Rockstar of late, and I'm oh-so curious to see what it's going to lead to in the years to come.

Firstly, however, let's cover the story of the hour. (Or last week's hour, given how these blogs are scheduled) "Rockstar acquires Ruffian games; renames them 'Rockstar Dundee'. Now I'll admit that this headline caught my attention first because of Rockstar and second for Ruffian. 'I know that name' I thought, 'Where do I know that name?'. Well, as it turns out I know them from the amount of times I've seen it in the intro logo screens for Crackdown 2, easily one of my most played games of the 360 days. As it so happens they actually worked on some more games other than that, playing as additional help as often as they would be lead developers. This means that whilst they worked on Crackdown 2 and >shudder< 3, they also did some back-up work on 'Halo: The Master Chief Collection' and- 'Kinect Star Wars'? (Oh man, that's rough buddy.) So of course, getting picked up by Rockstar is sure to be a huge opportunity for them and I hope they're all excited, but the curious matter as far as I'm concerned is what exactly this means for Rockstar and their future endeavours. 

One of the early take-aways has been that this news likely portends to some more GTA online content, and whilst I admit that this, though slightly tongue-in-cheek, prediction might hold some water; I'm a fan of more imaginative speculation. So if I were to put myself in the shoes of perhaps the biggest developer in the world, maybe I would be taking a look around me and wondering why it is that I've gone so many years on the back of two franchises alone. Now I'm not about to ram on Read Dead Redemption or Grand Theft Auto, I own all the games in both franchises so I'd have to be some sort of masochist if I did secretly hate them, but it's got to be quite creatively stunting to some degree for all efforts to end up getting realised as either one game or the other. Other than the seriousness with which they attack their themes, they aren't exactly the most different games of all time, now are they? Both are open world titles with mission-based narratives led by fixed characters and boast plots that are almost entirely linear from start to finish. There's no need to be so rigid in your every endeavour just because the entire industry turns to you to revolutionise the craft of open worlds every time you make a game, there's got to be more to the creative process. And thus, they start buying more bodies.

Now I could be completely off-base with my wild speculation here and Rockstar Dundee could literally have been bought aboard to hold down the fort whilst the team goes full force in GTA 6 development, (That's probably the single safest assumption right now) but I have to wonder if that's all a new studio is good for. I mean for one you should ask the question; why would they even bother making a risk like GTA 6 right now? Year after year, GTA V's 'GTA Online' has made Rockstar literally ludicrous amounts of money, I'm talking "shooting a rocket into space" amounts of money, and it hasn't looked like it's slowing down anytime soon. Even with the release of a potential competitor in Red Dead Online, GTA Online has still dominated most-played games lists and raked in those microtransaction dollars, almost single handily propelling gaming into the world's most profitable entertainment medium, so why would Rockstar challenge their own superiority by making that game obsolete? I mean, sure, GTA Online 2 would probably be as popular as the last version, but what if it isn't?

Recently, Innersloth games were faced with a similar dilemma when it came to their game 'Among Us'. On one hand the code base of Among Us was hard to work with and the team would have a much easier time starting afresh with a new game, but on the otherhand Among Us had unexpectedly blown up in popularity and they'd risk cannibalising their own playerbase with a new release, and that's the sort of short-sighted business practises best left to the lug-heads over at Electronic Arts. Now of course, Rockstar is a much bigger entity than the 5 man team over at Innersloth and GTA Online is an infinitely bigger machine than Among Us, but by that same merit that means Rockstar have so much more to lose if they go about things the wrong way. (And the laws of logic don't always bend just because you're a bigger entity.) Maybe it would behove Rockstar to wait until GTA Online shows visible signs of slowing down before launching into it's successor; and make no mistake, the only reason GTA 6 would ever make it to shelves would be because it heralded GTA Online's successor. (There's no such thing as a single player-only Rockstar game anymore.)

So let's assume that I'm right and Rockstar aren't making a move to shift to GTA 6 development just yet, then what exactly are they doing? Well that's the exciting part, because in such a scenario they could be up to almost anything. I do believe that the purchasing of Ruffian is a prelude to some sort of big move on their end, there's no way one does that just to maintain the status quo, but there's any number of directions one can go in when they have the amount of resources that Rockstar has. Maybe they don't want to launch a new franchise like I slyly suggested, but even their one-off games tend to be utterly fantastic when they land. LA Noire, Max Payne 3, Bully; all of these games did something special with their time and gave the team at Rockstar something a little different to work on, (Even if Bully and LA Noire did borrow quite a bit from the traditional Rockstar formula) and I say it's about high time we got another one, wouldn't you say?

Of course, all of this comes in the wake of renewed interest in the supposed Rockstar competitor, 'Everywhere', which is an apparent game in the works for a few years now and started by three former Rockstar North Developers. Helmed under the brand 'Build A Rocket Boy Games', (Well, I dig their music taste already) 'Everywhere' is poised to be... well, we actually have no idea right now. That's right, if you think the title of this game sounds vague, that's nothing compared to the actual nothing in terms of details we have right now, but people still love to pit this game against Grand Theft Auto, and given the rising interest in this project again those are the sorts of conversations that are going to be making their way Rockstar's direction Afterall, these devs did work in prominent positions for Rockstar's head office, so who's to say what they're capable of with unlimited time and a studio of their own? A 'less restrictive' open world title? (Whatever that means.) Who knows?

Recently Rockstar lost one of it's two heads, so I think that pressure is now on for he that remains to see if changes are planned or if all is remain the same. I'd say that the best way to reassure both the company and the industry would be something special and outside the norm from the Rockstar team, but of course what I think and what ends up happening are two very different beasts. Now I don't want to be the one who says that there's an added expectation in Rockstar to perform after the departure of one of the brothers, but fair-or-not it is there, and I wouldn't think it out of the blue if Rockstar are making big moves right now in order to prepare for that reassurance show. But I'm just running my mouth like I always do and who knows what strange ideas and thoughts whirl around the halls of the big boys and girls over at the Rockstar offices? I sure don't, I just buy the games.