BETA | STUDIOS // ROCKSTAR NORTH


Develop visited Rockstar North in August just as GTA V was finished and work for GTA Online ramped up


and there’s lots of rubbish on there. And they’ve stopped taking risks in Hollywood. Just look at film now, a lot of it is mediocre because they’ve stopped taking risks.” Benzies says the launch period for the GTA games are so enjoyable because the team gets to see how involved the audience gets. “The excitement I get when I would buy a new album from my favourite band and place the speakers at either side of my head and have it blast into my ears… that’s the enjoyment I hope others get. To be immersed, and to help people indulge in that escapism, that’s what I look forward to.”


‘STAR POWER Rockstar North, and Rockstar Games in general, has always fought for a level of autonomy and freedom from its owner Take- Two. The studio sets its schedule, “whatever is right to make the game we want to make” says Benzies. It’s something that we point out is quite different from any other publisher- owned games team. “We will never ever go ‘Ooh, there’s an


avenue for revenue!’. If any of us say that… we’ll go do something else. Everyone here, we sat at home aged 11 playing these games obsessively, we dreamt about making them, and here we are. I do this every day and it’s my job. A dream job.” Rockstar’s virtual independence, he adds, is


what gives it the freedom to spend so long on polishing its games. “That last five to ten per cent of work on the game makes a huge difference. This level


16 | OCTOBER 2013


of perfection is not seen or understood in the majority of the industry. We can all make a car drive down a street in a game, but can you do it in style? Everyone’s got characters that are walking around but can they walk? “We won’t be doing things every year in a


cycle. A year just isn’t long enough to do this job. It might have been on the old consoles, but not on this.” There’s some interfacing with publisher types, but only to inform Rockstar’s bigger


The last five to ten per cent of the work


makes a huge difference. This level of perfection is not seen in the majority of the industry.


Leslie Benzies, President


decisions – there’s no production by accounting here. “Obviously money is in there somewhere. There is a guy who tells us our download stuff makes this much and our disc stuff makes this much. But that’s the depth of it. That helps us decide if we’ll do download packs to rerelease on disc. “But really… we’ll make what we want. No, wait, don’t print that: we’ll make what people want, and that’s the truth.” What happens now that GTA V is finished?


“GTA Online.” THE STUDIO


OUR TOUR OF the studio takes us to Andy Semple next. He has been with Rockstar North since its founding in Edinburgh, as studio operations and director. At first he was overseeing a group of 25. Now it’s a team of over 360. “Since day one until now, yes, it’s been


quite the journey,” says Semple. He’s underselling it at first. Like many Rockstar staff he’s a little daunted and a bit


The innovative new mode – debuting


weeks after the main game – is being released as we go to press. If the game is an album, Online takes the music on tour. Benzies says the studio will be reorganised


to support it, with a core team operating Online. Some staff will take well-earned holidays. Others will carry on with other work. And when will Benzies, the Housers and


Garbut reform to talk GTA VI? Is there even a GTA VI yet? “We’ve got about 45 years worth of ideas we


want to do,” Benzies laughs. “We don’t know what GTA VI will be, but we’ve got some ideas. GTA Online is the focus right now. There ain’t no rest between finishing V and then Online. Plus we have some other things – stuff, DLC, I don’t know how to describe it exactly – that we’d like to do, and we’ll pick the right ones.” There seems little doubt that, when the


team get ready to storm the stage again, history will repeat itself.


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