For the publisher, see Rockstar Games.
Rockstar North is the trade name of Rockstar Games UK Limited (formerly known as DMA Design Limited and Rockstar North Limited), a British video game development company from Edinburgh, Scotland, originally founded in Dundee in 1987 by David Scott Jones, soon hiring former classmates Mike Dailly, Russell Kay, and Steve Hammond. The company is currently a studio for its American parent company Rockstar Games which is owned by Take Two Interactive. The president of the company was Leslie Benzies until 2016.
Rockstar North are the creators and primary developers of both the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt series, and responsible for originating the monumentally successful puzzle-strategy Lemmings franchise for the Amiga in 1991.
In 1997, DMA released Grand Theft Auto, which was a huge success; the game sparked a successful series. The company was soon acquired by Gremlin Interactive. Following the release of Grand Theft Auto 2, Gremlin was acquired by Infogrames. After the Infogrames acquisition, the DMA Design assets were sold to Take-Two Interactive. In 2001, after the release of Grand Theft Auto III, DMA Design was ultimately renamed Rockstar North and became part of the Rockstar Games label.
After the shift, Rockstar North worked on new titles, including Grand Theft Auto's shared-universe psychological horror game Manhunt, and provided additional support to other video game titles published by their parent company, including Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Redemption, and Max Payne 3 as a collaborative effort between multiple Rockstar Studios.
More recently, Rockstar North is the developer of Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online, and the primary developers of the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI. Rockstar North is Rockstar Games' most experienced production company, with a total of 33 games produced under the DMA Design or Rockstar North banner.
Games
As DMA Design
- Menace
- Ballistix
- Blood Money
- Lemmings
- Oh No! More Lemmings
- Walker
- Hired Guns
- Holiday Lemmings 1993
- The Lemmings Chronicles
- Christmas Lemmings
- Uniracers
- Grand Theft Auto
- Body Harvest
- Space Station Silicon Valley
- Tanktics
- Wild Metal Country
- Grand Theft Auto 2
- Grand Theft Auto III (credited as DMA only on PlayStation 2 release)
As Rockstar North
- Grand Theft Auto III
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
- Manhunt
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Grand Theft Auto Advance (outsourced to Digital Eclipse)
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (with Rockstar Leeds)
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (with Rockstar Leeds)
- Manhunt 2 (with Rockstar London, Rockstar Toronto, Rockstar Vienna, and Rockstar Leeds)
- Grand Theft Auto IV
- Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (with Rockstar Leeds)
- Red Dead Redemption (Assistance only; developed by Rockstar San Diego)
- Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (assistance only; developed by Rockstar San Diego)
- Max Payne 3 (collaborative effort as part of Rockstar Studios; Franchise created by Remedy Entertainment)
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Grand Theft Auto Online
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (collaborative effort as part of Rockstar Studios; Franchise created by Rockstar San Diego)
- Grand Theft Auto VI (collaborative effort as part of Rockstar Studios)
Cancelled
Employees
Gallery
Trivia
- The Rockstar North logo appears several times in game; for example, in GTA San Andreas it can be seen on the parachute pickup, on the casing of Let's Get Ready to Bumble arcade machines and on a Hotring Racer.
- One of the missions given to players in Mafiya Work or Team Mafiya Work multiplayer games in Grand Theft Auto IV references Rockstar North's efforts researching New York City for the development of the game's rendition of Liberty City. The players' client and boss, Kenny Petrovic, calls to inform that a team of researchers from a "Scottish" video game company are in Liberty City to research the city for the purpose of developing a video game. The players are tasked to pick up the developers so that they have a better understanding of criminal activities; in reality, they simply serve as muscle protecting the player, shooting at any enemies.
