Rockstar Leeds

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Rockstar Leeds Limited
Rockstar Games (2004–present)

Rockstar Leeds Limited (formerly Möbius Entertainment Limited) is a British

Alfred's Adventure, a remake of the Twilight-developed Alfred Chicken, and the cancelled Titanium Angels. From 2001 on, the studio created Game Boy Advance games for several publishers, including multiple for The 3DO Company and Max Payne
for Rockstar Games.

By the time the

sabbaticals
, establish studios, or join other companies.

History

Early years (1997–2003)

A former Möbius Entertainment logo
The former St Paul's Parish Church (pictured in 2016) housed Rockstar Leeds's offices until 2005.

Rockstar Leeds was founded as Möbius Entertainment by Ian J. Bowden, Dave Box, Gordon Hall, and Jason McGann.

Rainbow Islands and later influenced by Super Mario World. A demo was presented to Ocean Software, which had released some of Twilight's previous games, and the company was interested in publishing Alfred Chicken if its titular protagonist was replaced by Woodstock from the Peanuts franchise. Backed by the development team, McGann refused this offer as he wished to keep the character he had created. The studio instead worked with agent John Cook on a deal with publisher Mindscape that allowed Twilight to retain the game's intellectual property. The game was released for the Game Boy in 1993.[3]

McGann and Tattersall, the

Alfred's Adventure.[3] The game was released by SCi in Europe in June 2000.[11] After its release, Möbius switched agents from Cook to Emma Killilea, who pitched Alfred Chicken to Sony. At the time, that company was looking for family-friendly games for its PlayStation console, which was nearing the end of its lifecycle, and greenlit an Alfred Chicken remake for the platform. That game was released in 2002.[3]

For SCi, Möbius also developed Titanium Angels.

E3 2002 and scheduled to be released later that year, before the film.[21] The game was finished in 2002 but remained unreleased for some time as publisher BAM! Entertainment was waiting for the completion of the game's console versions.[22] Finally, Möbius developed the Game Boy Advance adaptation of Max Payne for Rockstar Games.[23]

Acquisition and PlayStation Portable projects (2002–2009)

Around 2002, Möbius created an internal team to develop a game engine for a prospective high-

parent company of Rockstar Games, acquired Möbius in March 2004 for US$4.549 million in cash.[26] The deal was announced on 8 April 2004 and the studio became part of Rockstar Games as Rockstar Leeds. Take-Two intended for the studio to develop PlayStation Portable games and further Game Boy Advance titles.[27][28] Necroscope, a PlayStation 2 and Xbox game based on Brian Lumley's eponymous horror novel series, was cancelled in the process.[29]

Under its new ownership, Rockstar Leeds was offered to develop games in the Grand Theft Auto series, which was a surprise as the prior games had been handled by Rockstar North.[8] The studio accepted and, in January 2005, was announced as working on two PlayStation Portable games: A port of Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition and an original Grand Theft Auto title based on Liberty City, the setting of 2001's Grand Theft Auto III.[30] The former was developed under the oversight of the game's original developer, Rockstar San Diego, and released in June 2005.[31] The studio cooperated with Rockstar North on the latter, which was announced as Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories in May 2005. It was released in October of that year to positive reviews.[32] A successor, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, was released in October 2006.[33] By November 2005, Rockstar Leeds had relocated from Pudsey to the City West business park in Leeds.[34]

Rockstar Leeds further created the PlayStation Portable versions of The Warriors and Manhunt 2, as well as the Wii port of Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis, all released in 2007.[35][36][37] The studio developed Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the debut title of the Grand Theft Auto series on the Nintendo DS.[38] Released in March 2009, the game received critical acclaim and became the highest-rated Nintendo DS game on Metacritic.[39][40] However, it was commercially unsuccessful, selling only 88,000 of the expected 200,000 copies in its first month.[41] Rockstar Leeds's Beaterator, a Timbaland-themed remake of a 2005 web game of the same name, was released in September 2009.[42][43]

Development collaborations and departures (2007–present)

McGann left Rockstar Leeds in 2007 to take a

Windows.[45]

Lee Hutchinson and Matt Shepcar announced in February 2010 that they had left Rockstar Leeds to establish

social-network game developer GameDuell.[51][52]

In July 2014, Rockstar Games contracted the property consultancy WSB to find 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2) of office space in Leeds.[53] Rockstar Leeds had moved to 1 Victoria Place in the city's Holbeck area by November 2016.[1][54] The studio co-developed 2013's Grand Theft Auto V and worked alongside all other Rockstar Games studios on Red Dead Redemption 2, which was released in October 2018.[55][56]

Accolades

Rockstar Leeds won "Best Handheld Games Studio" and was a finalist for "Best In-House Team" at the 2009

Develop Industry Excellence Awards.[57][58]

Games developed

As Möbius Entertainment

List of games developed by Rockstar Leeds, 2000–2004
Year Title Platform(s) Publisher(s) Notes
2000
Alfred's Adventure
 		Game Boy Color SCi
2001 High Heat Major League Baseball 2002 Game Boy Advance The 3DO Company
2002 High Heat Major League Baseball 2003
Alfred Chicken PlayStation
Sony Computer Entertainment
Army Men: Turf Wars
 		Game Boy Advance The 3DO Company
2003 Drome Racers THQ
Bionicle
Barbie Horse Adventures: Blue Ribbon Race
Vivendi Universal Games
 Co-developed with
Blitz Games
Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue
Pop Idol
 		Codemasters
Max Payne Rockstar Games
2004 A Sound of Thunder BAM! Entertainment

As Rockstar Leeds

List of games developed by Rockstar Leeds, 2005–present
Year Title Platform(s) Publisher(s) Notes
2005 Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition PlayStation Portable Rockstar Games Port development
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories Android, Fire OS, iOS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable Co-developed with Rockstar North
2006 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
2007 The Warriors PlayStation Portable Port development
Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis Wii Port development
Manhunt 2 PlayStation Portable Port development
2009 Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Android, Fire OS, iOS, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable Co-developed with Rockstar North
Beaterator iOS, PlayStation Portable
2010 Red Dead Redemption Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 Supportive development for Rockstar San Diego
2011 L.A. Noire Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4,
Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One
 Supportive development for Team Bondi; also ported to Windows
2012 Max Payne 3 macOS, PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 Developed as part of
Rockstar Studios
2013 Grand Theft Auto V PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4,
Xbox Series X/S
 Supportive development for Rockstar North
2018 Red Dead Redemption 2 PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One Developed as part of Rockstar Games

Cancelled

  • Titanium Angels
  • Necroscope

References

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