Rockstar Games: From DMA Design to GTA 6
The history of Rockstar Games: from DMA Design and Lemmings to GTA 6. Key studios, founders, controversies, and why GTA 6 took 13 years.
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Rockstar Games is the studio behind GTA 6, but its story begins a decade before the Rockstar name existed, in Dundee, Scotland. That is where DMA Design came up with a top-down car theft game in the 1990s. Today, Rockstar employs 4,711 people across more than a dozen offices, and GTA 6 is its first new mainline series release in 13 years.
Here are the key facts about the studio: where it came from, who runs it, the games that defined it, and why GTA 6 took so long to build.
Rockstar Games at a Glance
- Founded: December 1998, New York City
- Founders: Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Jamie King, and Gary Foreman
- Parent company: Take-Two Interactive
- Head: Sam Houser, President
- Headcount: 4,711 people in 2026, up from 2,441 in 2018
- Proprietary engine: RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine)
- Best-selling game: GTA V, over 220 million copies sold
From DMA Design to Rockstar North
The original Grand Theft Auto from 1997 was created by Scottish studio DMA Design, previously best known for Lemmings. The game featured a top-down perspective, simple graphics, and immediate controversy. In 1998, Take-Two acquired the GTA rights from BMG Interactive. In December of that same year, Rockstar Games was founded in New York as a new publishing label by the Houser brothers and three colleagues from BMG.
The Scottish studio was brought under the Rockstar banner in 2002 and renamed Rockstar North. Based in Edinburgh, it remains the lead production hub for mainline GTA titles to this day.
The Games That Built Rockstar
| Year | Game | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | GTA III | First fully 3D GTA, setting the open-world benchmark in Liberty City |
| 2002 | GTA: Vice City | 1980s Miami vibes and Tommy Vercetti; the setting GTA 6 returns to |
| 2004 | GTA: San Andreas | An entire state instead of a single city |
| 2006 | Bully | Boarding school dynamics instead of street gangs |
| 2008 | GTA IV | First GTA built on the proprietary RAGE engine |
| 2010 | Red Dead Redemption | The Western that grew into the studio’s second flagship franchise |
| 2012 | Max Payne 3 | Hard-boiled third-person shooter action set in São Paulo |
| 2013 | GTA V | Over 220 million copies sold, the second best-selling video game in history |
| 2018 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | Rockstar’s most detailed living world prior to GTA 6 |
| 2026 | GTA 6 | Leonida and Vice City, launching on November 19 |
Rockstar Studios Network
Rockstar is not just one physical studio. It operates as a coordinated network of offices working on the same titles. For GTA 6, all locations contributed simultaneously.
- Rockstar North (Edinburgh, Scotland): Lead development hub for the GTA series
- Rockstar San Diego (Carlsbad, US): Origin of the RAGE engine
- Rockstar Toronto (Oakville, Canada)
- Rockstar Leeds, Lincoln, and London (UK): Lincoln handles quality assurance, among other roles
- Rockstar New England (Andover, US): Formerly the studio behind Bully
- Rockstar Dundee (Scotland): Joined the network in 2020
- Rockstar India (Bengaluru)
- Rockstar Australia (Sydney): Joined the network in 2025
- Rockstar Los Angeles (Santa Monica)
- Cfx.re: The team behind the FiveM and RedM roleplay platforms, acquired in 2023
The Houser Brothers
Sam Houser serves as studio president and the public face of Rockstar, although he rarely gives interviews. His brother Dan Houser spent decades writing the narratives for GTA and Red Dead Redemption. Dan left the studio on March 11, 2020, making GTA 6 the first flagship Rockstar title without him serving as head writer.
Why GTA 6 Took So Long to Develop
Thirteen years passed between GTA V and GTA 6. The primary drivers behind this timeline were documented by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, which I summarized in my breakdown of how GTA 6 was made. In short:
- GTA Online generated sustained revenue, removing urgent commercial pressure for an immediate sequel
- Red Dead Redemption 2 consumed virtually the entire studio network until 2018
- The team expanded from 2,441 to 4,711 people, while pandemic remote workflows slowed output
- Rockstar delayed release targets twice: from autumn 2025 to May 26, 2026, and then to November 19, 2026
Rockstar also made a deliberate choice that sets it apart from much of the modern industry: relying on zero generative AI in game production. You can read more about that decision in my article on GTA 6 without generative AI.
Controversies and Breaches
- 2005, Hot Coffee: An explicit minigame hidden inside San Andreas game code that could be unlocked via mods. It led to rating changes in the US and temporary retail pullbacks until code revisions were issued.
- 2022, GTA 6 Network Leak: A network intrusion compromised early development assets, leaking roughly 90 gameplay clips. Rockstar publicly confirmed the breach.
- 2025, Layoffs: In October 2025, Rockstar laid off staff members. The UK union IWGB alleged union-busting activity, while Rockstar maintained the dismissals were related to mishandling confidential information.
What Comes Next After GTA 6
Rockstar has not shared details on future projects yet. One thing is certain: GTA 6 will serve as the studio’s primary foundation for years, much like GTA V did for the past 13 years. You can track launch schedules, preloads, and pricing in our GTA 6 hub.
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