Employee Exodus at Rockstar Games?

[PhilOsirus]

EA, Take Two and Activision's stocks are falling big time. This next-gen transition thing is taking too much time.

[SpiralFace]

As bad as this looks, I'm actualy glad that some of the Marketing guys are gone.

I beleave that game developers should have the right to produce whatever kind of game that they want.

But at the same time, I have personal issues with companys that clearly make a game for an adult audiance, but put hundereds of TV advertiseing spots for that game intended for adults in the middle of after school cartoons. I've seen people as young as 7 coming into my store and demanding GTA simply becuase they saw it on TV.

And as much as I agree that the main responsibilaty of the childs possession of the game falls on the parents, I beleave that a part of the demand for the game in the first place is through the iresponsibilaty and / or greed of those Marketing the games in the middle of shows like Yugi-oh and others clearly marketed to a younger audiance. Just so the demand is there so all the younger kids want it. I know and understand that the sole job of those marketing the game are to reach every demographic to make the most money out of the game, (We all know how expensive they are to produce now a days.) but I beleave they have a moral responsibilaty to at least keep their adversizing to the audiance that the game was clearly intended to reach. And not stoke the fires of demand on a very young and impressionably audiance, that WILL bug their parents for it, and unfortunatly, be bought for them by the parents who simply don't know of the games nature or don't care (Which sadly is a very big number).

Although ultimatly I blame the parents on the possession of the game amoung childeren that realy should'nt have it. The people that make the decisions to market this game to that younger audiance can't pretend that their hands are clean in this debate.

Sorry for the rant, as I'm sure that those individuals that quit had nothing to do with placeing the advertisement in the spots I have problems with, (my suspicion is that those individuals are more on Take Twos side of the fence.) but I just had to get that off my chest.

[pearson]

Has Rockstar or Take2 really had another bonafide hit besides GTA? I thought State of Emergency would feature alot of the same things that I liked about GTA, but unfortunately it didn't. I haven't played a non-GTA game from Take2 since then. :shrug:

[DeadlyFreeze]

Depends on what you want to consider as a "hit". Max Payne was no slouch, not as big as GTA:3 but then not alot is.

[stewartjones]

Has Rockstar or Take2 really had another bonafide hit besides GTA? I thought State of Emergency would feature alot of the same things that I liked about GTA, but unfortunately it didn't. I haven't played a non-GTA game from Take2 since then. :shrug:

Oblivion! Biggest selling game on the 360, or at least that's what Take2 tell me! :)

I don't think that Take2 would sabotage Rockstar games, I mean GTA! We all love it, and it sells by the truck load! Take2 have been closing a few places, but I doubt that they will touch Rockstar... Well, not for the moment at least!

[mattmos]

Unfortunately they already have Stu, Take Two closed Rockstar Vienna and locked out employees from their office with no notice whatsoever after 4+years of service - some of those guys were pretty understandably upset and I know I wouldn't want to work for a company which would behave like that...

Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_Vienna

[PhantomDesign]

Unfortunately they already have Stu, Take Two closed Rockstar Vienna and locked out employees from their office with no notice whatsoever after 4+years of service - some of those guys were pretty understandably upset and I know I wouldn't want to work for a company which would behave like that...

Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_Vienna
Wow, can anyone verify this?

[thomaspecht]

ehm.. that's old news from around 2 months ago with it's own thread in this very forum. :D
anyone knows what kind of projects RV worked on, btw? i heard rumours about a new max payne project that was under way at their studio before the closure.

[DeadlyFreeze]

anyone knows what kind of projects RV worked on, btw? i heard rumours about a new max payne project that was under way at their studio before the closure.


I cant say I've heard of any of these titles but heres what they had listed....Whale's Voyage, The Clue!, Rent-a-Hero, Alien Nations and The Sting!... very unrockstar of them I'm not surprised they got axed.

As far as max payne goes I wouldnt be surprised if they had been it was a solid title, but I see no mention of it.

[thomaspecht]

ah sorry i should have clarified: i was asking what they were working on when they got axed. most of the games you listed are really old amiga/pc titles from the mid nineties. they started as an austrian developer, called "neo software", and only went on to become "rockstars" in 2003 or so.

[SunDog101]

Rockstar Games dug thier own hole! I hope they have dug it deep enough that they will never be able to climb out. :D I just don't agree with the content of thier games. Companies can make good games without lowering themselves to such a low moral level but for some deranged reason they still choose to do this.

[TimMehmet]

Rockstar Games dug thier own hole! I hope they have dug it deep enough that they will never be able to climb out. :D I just don't agree with the content of thier games. Companies can make good games without lowering themselves to such a low moral level but for some deranged reason they still choose to do this.

hah, you must be the most fun person ever :thumbsup:

[CelticArtist]

Rockstar Games dug thier own hole! I hope they have dug it deep enough that they will never be able to climb out. :D I just don't agree with the content of thier games. Companies can make good games without lowering themselves to such a low moral level but for some deranged reason they still choose to do this.

What they did was bad (hot coffee), who they marketed to was bad (kids), but the rating was already M, meaning 18+ (or maybe 17), and I love the games, and hey, i'm an adult, wow, the actual target audience. Feel free to have your opinion, i can't and won't take that way from you, but please understand that there are those of us who like to play violent games, and we're perfectly well adjusted members of society, it's a game.

[rakmaya]

Rockstar Games dug thier own hole! I hope they have dug it deep enough that they will never be able to climb out. :D I just don't agree with the content of thier games. Companies can make good games without lowering themselves to such a low moral level but for some deranged reason they still choose to do this.

What is moral for you might be acceptable for someone else in a virtual reality scenario. Of course it depends on person. A game is a game and it is meant to be played by people who like it. Forcing your beliefs onto someone else is worse than if that game were to be real. I am not saying you are doing that, but your wish for the demise of a company makes that thought a whole lot similar to what you stand against.

[bluemagicuk]

Rockstar Games dug thier own hole! I hope they have dug it deep enough that they will never be able to climb out. :D I just don't agree with the content of thier games. Companies can make good games without lowering themselves to such a low moral level but for some deranged reason they still choose to do this.

Exactly what i was thinking... I admit they are great games to play but I seriously disagree with taking gaming in the direction that they chose.

[PyRoT]

I can't believe that a company would partly suffer so much losses over a mod that someone else made. It's just unfair... obviously the hype was generated by people with an agenda to shut down this game they hate.

Anyway, I do disaprove of that Vienna closing. Mostly the way they behaved. I still hope they work things out and keep producing great games :)

[Aegis Prime]

Uh, 'Hot Coffee' wasn't a mod as such - Rockstar created all the content themselves and the sex game was in the code that shipped - the 'mod' was a simple hack to unlock it - that's what got them into hot cof - uh - water :)

Whilst I don't overly approve of the GTA content (hiring a hooker then beating her up to get your money back?? :eek: ) - I'm even more disapproving of censorship. Rockstar shouldn't have left the content in there even though it wasn't a part of GTA but likewise, parents shouldn't be buying these games for their kids - too many people looking for scapegoats for their own lack of responsibility these days :sad:

[marc001]

Personally I'm a proponent of violent video games. Though I'm not a fan of the GTA games. They seem rushed, and lack polish. If Rockstar spent more time and effort they can make a high quality GTA game. I prefer Metal Gear, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil.

[urgaffel]

...Rockstar shouldn't have left the content in there even though it wasn't a part of GTA...

Problem is, it's not unusual that code and/or content is still in the game but isn't used. Take a look at the Knights of the Old Republic 2, there was a ton of dialogue in the game that wasn't used that people managed to extract by hacking the files. Sometimes you don't have time to properly remove the code and it just gets commented out :)

[pearson]

Problem is, it's not unusual that code and/or content is still in the game but isn't used. Take a look at the Knights of the Old Republic 2, there was a ton of dialogue in the game that wasn't used that people managed to extract by hacking the files. Sometimes you don't have time to properly remove the code and it just gets commented out :)Plus, if you are that close to ship, you don't want to touch the build any more than absolutely necessary. Even though you are "sure" that nothing in the millions of lines of code relies on the code you are deleting, some odd bug could be created. It's just safer (and easier) to just remove all references to the code and let it stay.

I never understood why people were so up in arms about that Hot Coffee mod. The ESRB shouldn't have rerated it, as it isn't available through the game itself. They showed they aren't above knee-jerk reactions to political pressure, imho. Why Rockstar thought the sex game would be worth dev time at all seems pretty dumb, too, but if you have to hack the game to get certain content, it shouldn't be covered by the game's rating (especially since it was already 'M' which covers some sexual content).

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