Rockstar Vancouver Inc. (formerly Barking Dog Studios Ltd.) was a Canadian
video game developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
and a studio of
Rockstar Games based in
Vancouver. The studio is best known for developing ''
Bully
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by ot ...
'' (2006).
Six former
Radical Entertainment developers—Glenn Barnes, Peter Grant, Michael Gyori, Christopher Mair, Brian Thalken, and Sean Thompson—founded the company as Barking Dog Studios in May 1998. In its early years, Barking Dog briefly assisted
Relic Entertainment with ''
Homeworld'' (1999) before being greenlit to develop an
expansion pack, ''
Homeworld: Cataclysm'' (2000). The studio also developed ''
Counter-Strike''s "Beta 5" update (1999), ''
Global Operations
''Global Operations'' is a first-person tactical shooter video game developed by Barking Dog Studios and co-published by Crave Entertainment and Electronic Arts. It was released in March 2002, following its public multiplayer beta version whi ...
'' (2002), and ''
Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon'' (2002).
Take-Two Interactive acquired Barking Dog in August 2002 and it became part of Rockstar Games as Rockstar Vancouver. The studio then developed ''Bully'' and was one of the Rockstar Games studios leading the development of ''
Max Payne 3'' (2012). In July 2012, Rockstar Games merged Rockstar Vancouver into
Rockstar Toronto
Rockstar Games Toronto ULC (trade name: Rockstar Toronto; formerly Imagexcel, Alternative Reality Technologies, and Rockstar Canada) is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Oakville, Ontario. The company was ...
, with Rockstar Vancouver's thirty-five employees being given the option to relocate to Rockstar Toronto or any other Rockstar Games studio.
History
Early years (1998–2002)
Rockstar Vancouver was founded as Barking Dog Studios by Glenn Barnes, Peter Grant, Michael Gyori, Christopher Mair, Brian Thalken, and Sean Thompson.
They had worked at developer
Radical Entertainment until the company faced financial difficulties the late 1990s.
As the studio's partnership with
Disney had faltered, it lost its
ESPN licence and was briefly in
receivership.
This prompted the formation of multiple companies by employees who left Radical Entertainment, including
Black Box Games.
The sextet established Barking Dog in May 1998.
They sought a "non-corporate, non-pretentious" name during a brainstorming session and settled on one derived from the Barking Dog, a
pub in California.
The company formally began operating on 16 July 1998 after signing its first publishing contract.
The nascent studio worked with developer
Relic Entertainment and publisher
Sierra Studios on
programming for the 1999 game ''
Homeworld'', and were shortly thereafter greenlit to develop an
expansion pack, ''
Homeworld: Cataclysm''. During this time, Barking Dog moved into Relic's offices and had roughly twenty employees engaged in the game's development.
''Cataclysm'' was announced in February 2000 and released in September that year.
When an updated version was released via the
GOG.com
GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through its ...
platform in June 2017, its name was changed to ''Homeworld: Emergence'' because
Blizzard Entertainment had since registered the "Cataclysm"
trademark for ''
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm''.
Around 1999,
Valve became interested in ''
Counter-Strike'', a
mod
Mod, MOD or mods may refer to:
Places
* Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band
* M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...
co-created by Barking Dog employee
Minh Le
Minh Le (Vietnamese: Lê Minh), also known by his online nickname Gooseman, is a Vietnamese Canadian video game programmer who co-created the ''Half-Life'' mod ''Counter-Strike'' with Jess Cliffe in 1999 and started the ''Counter-Strike'' seri ...
. As it became more deeply involved in the project, the company hired Barking Dog for the mod's "Beta 5" update.
The studio developed roughly 90% of that update, which was released in December 1999.
Le joined Valve shortly thereafter to continue ''Counter-Strike''s development, and the finished game was released in November 2000.
In the same month, Barking Dog was rumoured to be developing a tactical
first-person shooter, which
Crave Entertainment announced as ''
Global Operations
''Global Operations'' is a first-person tactical shooter video game developed by Barking Dog Studios and co-published by Crave Entertainment and Electronic Arts. It was released in March 2002, following its public multiplayer beta version whi ...
'' in December that year.
''Global Operations'' was released in March 2002, co-published by Crave Entertainment and
Electronic Arts.
Barking Dog began developing a proprietary
game engine
A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...
, ARES, in January 2001 and subsequently commenced production on a
real-time strategy game using the engine that June. When the engine was unveiled in April 2002, the company expected to announce the game at that year's
E3.
The game, announced as ''
Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon'', was developed in tandem with ''
Treasure Planet'', the Disney film it is based on. Disney's games division,
Disney Interactive, released the game in November 2002 shortly before the movie.
Acquisition and ''Bully'' (2002–2007)
On 1 August 2002,
Take-Two Interactive announced its acquisition of Barking Dog for in cash and 242,450 shares of restricted
common stock, an estimated total value.
As part of the purchase, Barking Dog became part of Take-Two's
Rockstar Games label as Rockstar Vancouver.
Rockstar Canada
Rockstar Games Toronto ULC (trade name: Rockstar Toronto; formerly Imagexcel, Alternative Reality Technologies, and Rockstar Canada) is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Oakville, Ontario. The company was ...
, Rockstar Games' studio in
Oakville, Ontario, was renamed Rockstar Toronto to avoid confusion between the two.
Jamie Leece, the
president of Take-Two's
Gotham Games
Gotham Games, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in New York City. Founded in July 2002 and headed by Jamie Leece, the company was shut down in December 2003.
History
Gotham Games was launched as a publishing label and subsidia ...
label, assisted in the acquisition.
At the time, the studio and its roughly 50 employees were working with Rockstar Games on two games: a military action game and an original title.
In the time following the acquisition, several Rockstar Vancouver employees (including some of its founders) set up new studios, including
Ironclad Games
Ironclad Games is a Canadian PC game developer. The company was founded in 2003 by former employees of Rockstar Vancouver. Ironclad is located in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Titles
Ironclad released their first game, ''Sins of a Solar Empire'' o ...
(founded in 2003),
Kerberos Productions
Kerberos Productions Inc. is a video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The company was formed in 2003 by former employees of Rockstar Vancouver.
The company takes its name and logo from Cerberus, a large three-headed c ...
(2004),
Slant Six Games
Slant Six Games was a Canadian independent video game developer founded in 2005. The company's name is derived from the 1959 Chrysler engine of the same name. Slant Six Games' studio was based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They were vot ...
(2005),
Big Sandwich Games (2006),
Hellbent Games
Hellbent Games Inc. is a Canadian video game developer based in Burnaby, British Columbia. The company was founded by Christopher Mair, a founder of Rockstar Vancouver, on 12 June 2006, in Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in weste ...
(2006),
and
United Front Games (2007).
Under Rockstar Games, Rockstar Vancouver was working on ''Spec Ops'', a reboot of
the eponymous series. With music by
Josh Homme
Joshua Michael Homme ( ; born May 17, 1973) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the founder, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, which he form ...
and
Alain Johannes of the band
Queens of the Stone Age, the game was to be released in late 2005 but it was cancelled that year.
Rockstar Vancouver's first released game was announced as ''
Bully
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by ot ...
'' in May 2005.
Before its release, the game's name and theme attracted some controversy from politicians, parents, and activists like
Jack Thompson, who regarded it as advocating for
school violence.
In Europe, it was renamed ''Canis Canem Edit''.
Upon its release in 2006, the game garnered a positive critical response, and ''
PC Gamer''s Sam Roberts labelled it Rockstar Games' "softest and silliest game, with the warmest heart" in a 2014
retrospective
A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...
.
''Max Payne 3'' and closure (2008–2012)
In October 2008, Rockstar Vancouver was rumoured to be developing a third instalment in the ''
Max Payne
''Max Payne'' is a neo-noir third-person shooter video game series developed by Remedy Entertainment (''Max Payne'' and ''Max Payne 2'') and Rockstar Studios (''Max Payne 3''). The series is named after its protagonist, Max Payne, a New York Ci ...
'' series created by
Remedy Entertainment.
Rockstar Games announced the game as ''
Max Payne 3'' in March 2009, expecting to release it in late 2009.
According to
Dan Houser
Daniel Houser (born November 1973) is an English video game producer, writer, and voice actor, as well as the co-founder (along with his brother Sam) and former vice president of creativity for Rockstar Games. As well as producing video games, ...
, the
creative director, a new ''Max Payne'' game was chosen over a ''Bully'' sequel due to what he described as "limited bandwidth and limited studios, and more games to make than we've started".
The development became a co-operation between Rockstar Vancouver, Rockstar Toronto,
Rockstar London
Rockstar London Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in London. Mark Washbrook established the company in November 2005 within Rockstar Games' European publishing offices. The studio's first game was '' ...
, and
Rockstar New England
Rockstar New England, Inc. (formerly Mad Doc Software, LLC) is an American video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Andover, Massachusetts. Ian Lane Davis founded the company as Mad Doc Software in November 1999 after work ...
.
In a January 2010
open letter, the wives of several
Rockstar San Diego employees claimed that their spouses had regularly worked overtime and that the studio was suffering from mismanagement.
These claims were echoed by former employees of other Rockstar Games studios, including Rockstar Vancouver.
The mismanagement was said to have caused ''Max Payne 3'' missing its intended release window, being rescheduled for August–October 2010.
The game was released in May 2012.
Two months later, on 9 July 2012, Rockstar Games announced that Rockstar Toronto would be moving into larger, custom-built offices in Oakville, into which Rockstar Vancouver would be merged.
Rockstar Vancouver's thirty-five employees were given the option to relocate to the expanded Rockstar Toronto or any other Rockstar Games studio.
Jennifer Kolbe, Rockstar Games'
vice-president of publishing and operations, stated creating a single Canadian team that would "make for a powerful creative force on future projects", while making room for fifty new positions at Rockstar Toronto.
Rockstar Vancouver's legal entity, Rockstar Vancouver Inc., remained formally registered under
Canada's federal company laws. In November 2012, it was transitioned to a
British Columbia corporation as Rockstar Games Vancouver Inc. and then transformed to Rockstar Games Vancouver ULC, an
unlimited liability corporation.
In August 2019, it was renamed Take-Two Interactive Software Vancouver ULC.
Games developed
As Barking Dog Studios
As Rockstar Vancouver
Cancelled
* ''Spec Ops''
References
External links
* (archived)
{{Take-Two Interactive
1998 establishments in British Columbia
2002 mergers and acquisitions
2012 disestablishments in British Columbia
Canadian companies disestablished in 2012
Canadian companies established in 1998
Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies
Companies based in Vancouver
Defunct companies of British Columbia
Defunct video game companies of Canada
Rockstar Games subsidiaries
Take-Two Interactive divisions and subsidiaries
Video game companies disestablished in 2012
Video game companies established in 1998
Video game development companies