Rockstar releases second trailer GTA V.

Exactly a year ago the guys at Rockstar did us all a favor and released the first trailer of their upcoming videogame 'Grand Theft Auto V'. While it's still a bit in the dark when exactly they will release it, they're now saying 'Spring 2013', which means anywhere between March 20 and June 21. Just yesterday, they gave us the second trailer, showing much more of the game and characters, and I can only say...WOW!

The artwork looks so great, knowing how big this thing is gonna be, it's just amazing really. The new location is reported to be bigger than all areas of GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption and GTA San Andreas combined! I'm thinking this will be an industry changer and some new milestones will definately be set. Guess we already know who's going to win the 'Best game of 2013' award, right? Check it out below, make sure to hit the 720p switch for HD picture:




Game Informer Magazine.

Next issue of Game Informer magazine in December is bringing a huge exclusive piece on GTA V, but if you're a digital subscriber, you' ve already been able to get it and read it. It has info on all the cool stuff and includes interviews with the people at Rockstar and the brothers Houser, the creators of GTA. Here's a look at some of the stuff in the magazine (click to enlarge): For more intel, you can also check out yesterday's Matt Helgeson's (Game Informer) podcast.

Max Payne 3: Three Million units and counting.

Last week, Rockstar's Max Payne 3 was released for the Xbox 360 and the PS3. The shooter is the latest gem from the brothers Sam and Dan Houser, founders of Rockstar Games. Now, Take-Two Interactive, owners of Rockstar and 2K Games ('Bioshock'), has stated that Max sold three Million units in the first week.

Reported figures also showed a loss of 27 percent over the last year, accumulating a net revenue of 'merely' $825.8 million up to the end of March 2012. Take-Two shareholders however are still smiling, as the corporation expects to make up for it's loss this year around, and forecasts a total revenue of 1.75 to 1.85 Billion before March 31, 2013 (so, in fact even better then the reported 1.13 Billion over 2010/2011), leading me to conclude that GTA V will definitely be released before that.

GTA IV sold 3.6 million units within the first 24 hours and six Million the first week, which made it into the Guiness book of records aka Guiness World Records. (the record for fastest selling game currently stands with Activision's Modern Warfare 3, which sold 6.5 million units on the very first day of sales). All GTA games by Rockstar, going back to the very first one, have been released in October, except for GTA IV, which was slated for October 16, 2007 but was delayed until April 8, 2008 (after the fiscal year ended) due to 'technical challenges', as the official accounts state.

Max Payne Comic.

Completely in style with the first two games (which used comic book panels instead of cut scenes), Marvel Comics just released the first of three comic books about Max Payne, written by Dan Houser himself with Sami Järvi aka Sam Lake of Finnish game developer Remedy Entertainment, the original creators of Max Payne. The limited comic book series titled 'After the Fall' chronicles Max's past, as shown in the original game from 2001 and the sequel 'The Fall of Max Payne' released in 2003. It has great art by Fernando Blanco with stunning covers by Greg Horn. But don't run off to your local comic store just yet, as Rockstar has officially made the series available for free as downloads on their site (a PDF file becomes available if you hover over the cover artwork). Currently only the first issue is available, issue 2 will be available as of June 12, with 3 following after that.

Rockstar GTA V trailer goes live.

As promised, here's the official first trailer for Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5, released an hour ago. Click it to watch! It appears the logo sign has been lifted off an old silver certificate,  a US currency used between 1878 and 1964 (below). The design dates back to 1899 and features 'Running Antelope', chief of the hunkpapa Sioux indian tribe in South Dakota, who was the first to sign a peace treaty at Fort Rice in 1868 and was the only American Indian ever to feature on an American currency. From the trailer we can see the game is set in California aka San Andreas (the creators have other names for their places, Hollywood is called 'Vinewood' for instance). The game will have multiple playable characters and will be out in 2012.

By the way, the song you can hear is called 'Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake' from 1968 by the British band 'The Small Faces'. Have Fun!

Rockstar counting down to show GTA V.

After months of speculation and much anticipation it's finally here! Yesterday, Rockstar Games officially announced the next sequel to their controversial record breaking video game series, Grand Theft Auto V. They revealed their official logo for the game (above) and said they'll have the first trailer up in a week on their website. Hope their servers will be able to withstand the huge spike in traffic next week! The trailer will go live on November 2.

UPDATE #1 11/02/2011: Check out the first offical trailer HERE.
UPDATE #2 11/16/2012: Check out the 2nd trailer and all info on main characters HERE.

Record Breaking games.

GTA IV released on April 29, 2008 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 sold more than 3.6 million copies on the first day of release, grossing over $ 500 million dollars. which made it into the Guiness Book of records as 'Highest Revenue Generated by an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours'. The PC version was released on December 2nd that year, while the game also spawned two consecutive expansion packs 'The Lost and the Damned' and 'The Ballad of Gay Tony', which enabled you to play completely new levels with new characters in the same setting, 'Liberty City' aka New York City. The total series of GTA video games have now sold over 100 million copies world wide! Who said crime doesn't pay?

Above: Iconic artwork for all the GTA covers is created by Rockstar's senior artists Stephen Bliss and Anthony Macbain.

Rockstar history.

Rockstar Games was founded in New York in 1998 by the british game developers Sam and Dan Houser with Terry Donovan, Jamie King and Gary Foreman. But the first GTA game was developed by DMA design in Edinburgh, Scotland, known for their popular 'Lemmings' games. It was published in October 1997 for the PC by BMG Interactive, the new technologies division of BMG entertainment, also owner of numerous record labels including Arista, Ariola and RCA Records, which was the main reason why brothers Sam and Dan Houser were working for them in the '90's, because they wanted to become Rockstars!

From left to right: Sam Houser, Terry Donovan and Dan Houser. The three of them even went to the same school together (Saint Paul's School). After working for BMG for fives years, Donovan was VP of marketing for Take-Two from 1999 to 2006. (Photographs by Jordan Liles).

GTA 2 was also created by DMA and published on October 25th, 1999 for the PC and the Playstation, just ahead of Sony's release of the PS2 in March 2000. When BGM's interactive video games division was aquired by Take-Two Interactive it was transformed into Rockstar Games, which bought DMA in 2001 and turned it into Rockstar North. Currently Take-Two has ten Rockstar studios actively involved in the creation of the videogames franchise, but all major GTA games are still developed by Rockstar North in Edinburgh, U.K.

Home is where the heart is. Offices of Rockstar North in Edinburgh, U.K. Thanks to MathewBest for this amazing photo! (click to enlarge).

Grand Theft Auto III was developed by DMA/Rockstar North and released for the PC, PS2 and Xbox on October 22, 2001. It was the first real 'Rockstar' GTA and had the graphics and designs that have now become iconic to the series. It also had the various music stations and fake ads we all love now. Set in 'Liberty City', it was the first GTA in 3D (the first two were 2D and had a 'top down' view) using the RenderWare game enigine, developed by British game developer 'Criterion Games', also responsible for the 'Burnout' racing games, the critically acclaimed First Person Shooter 'Black' in 2004 and last year's racer 'Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit'.

On October 13th, Rockstar announed a 'Tenth Anniversary Special edition' of GTA III for mobile devices such as the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S, the Android phones and tablets and the Samsung  Galaxy Tab.

Rockstar also released a 10 year anniversary poster and a limited-edition 1:6 scale action figure of Claude, the main character of GTA III. It will come with two sets of clothing, including his Liberty City prison uniform. It also has all the weapons from the game: a bat, knife, grenades, pistol, sniper rifle, and an assault rifle and is produced by collectible figure maker Sideshow. GTA I and II are part of Rockstar's Classic downloadable series and freely available at Rockstar's site.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was actually the fourth GTA game Rockstar developed. Released on October 1, 2002 for the PS2 and later ported to the Xbox and the PC. Inspired by Brian De Palma's drug trafficing gangster classic 'Scarface' and Michael Mann's NBC TV hit series 'Miami Vice', it was set in the 1980's in 'Vice City' and focused on former inmate Tommy Vercetti aka the 'Harwood Butcher', a member of the Liberty City Mafia, and his dealings with the Cuban and Haitian gangs. It was the best selling game of 2002 and was released on the Mac App store on August 25, 2011.

GTA San Andreas was Rockstar's fifth console game in the franchise, released for the PS2 on October 26, 2004, it became the best-selling game of all time for Sony's video game console. Changing Liberty and Vice City for the West coast of the US, it focussed on the lives and gang related activities of Carl 'CJ' Johnson and his 'Grove Street Families' gang fighting the 'Ballas' and the 'Vagos' for their territories in 'Los Santos', 'San Ferro' and 'Las Venturas'. 

Released for Sony's PSP handheld in October 2005, 'Liberty City Stories' was again set in Liberty City in 1998 and therefor serves as a prequel to GTA III. Also developed for the PSP and released in 2006, 'Vice City Stories', was a prequel to 'GTA: Vice City'. Created by Rockstar Leeds in the U.K. (formerly known as Mobius Entertainment), it was again ported to the PS2 in March 2007.

GTA IV was released on April 29, 2008 for PS3 and Xbox 360 and ported to the PC in December that year. It used the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) developed by Rockstar San Diego, formerly known as the Angel Studios who created the first 'Midnight Club' race game exclusively for the PS2 in 1999 and several sequels after Take-Two had aqcuired the studio in November 2002. In 2004 they were responsible for the western game 'Red Dead Revolver', a predecessor of last year's immensly popular western game 'Red Dead Redemption'. Two expansions were released in 2009 as DLC: 'The Lost and the Damned' and 'The Ballad of Gay Tony'. It is expected that GTA V will be released in 2012 and will also have downloadable content and episodic gameplay, extending the original single player.