Rockstar has acquired Crackdown 2 developer Ruffian Games, and rebranded them as Rockstar Dundee. This was first spotted by TheGamer who posted a detailed filing history from Companies House. The notifications involve the change of name, registered address, new directors, and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. as an entity with significant control over the company. The financial details of this acquisition are yet to be disclosed. As the tweet below shows, the two companies had been working closely together since last year to develop ‘unspecified’ titles.
We're #Hiring! https://t.co/W5YqjZODIJ
— Ruffian Games (@RuffianGames) October 11, 2019
Ruffian Games was founded in 2008 by Gary Liddon and Billy Thomson, both of whom have left the company after the acquisition. The team at Ruffian includes industry veterans from Climax Studios, RealTime Worlds (now insolvent) and DMA Design (currently Rockstar North) who had worked on AAA titles like Crackdown, Project Gotham Racing, Fable 2 and Grand Theft Auto. Ruffian Games has worked on games like Kinect Star Wars and Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Rockstar Dundee joins a roster of 8 development studios and the Rockstar Studios international publishing subsidiary, which all fall under the Rockstar Games brand, which itself is a video game publisher established under Take-Two Interactive.
Rockstar has also been working with Video Games Deluxe, the devs behind the VR version of L.A. Noire, on a new AAA open-world VR title. Back in 2019, They had acquired India-based Dhruva Interactive from Starbreeze Studios for $7.9 million. They will be re-releasing GTA V for next-gen consoles and is perhaps looking to boost its ranks for this task, but we are also curious about some other IPs that they own. With franchises like Grand Theft Auto, Bully, Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire, Max Payne and Manhunt in its kitty, which game do you think Rockstar is going to come up with next? Tell us in the comments below!