It’s been a tough year of studio closures, but in this very tight knight community there seems to be the sense that with every job loss comes at least one new opportunity. Case in point is Rockstar’s Vancouver studios, which has unfortunately closed its doors. Luckily, alongside the closure of Rockstar Vancouver, comes the opening of a new studio in Oakville, Ontario to become part of Rockstar Toronto.
Members of Rockstar Vancouver’s team (there were said to be about 35 developers on staff at the time of the closure) are being offered a position at Rockstar Toronto or one of the other various Rockstar Games facilities based around North America. The Ontario government is partially funding the creation of Rockstar Toronto, and Rockstar hopes to bring on about 50 developers for future projects.
What this means for the future of the Max Payne franchise, though, is unclear since Rockstar Vancouver was the company, along with Rockstar Toronto, responsible for delivering the most recent exploits of the hard-boiled detective, Max Payne 3. Rockstar did inherit the franchise from Remedy Entertainment, who themselves moved on to Alan Wake, but the hope was that the franchise would continue in one form or another. In fact, Max Payne 3 was actually pretty well received, and stands out as one of the finest games released during 2012 thus far.
This increased staff for Rockstar Toronto could also help get the ball rolling on the oft-requested Bully sequel Rockstar has been teasing. At the end of last year Rockstar said that after Max Payne 3 shipped work might begin on the Bully sequel.
So, it may not be Rockstar Vancouver that develops Max Payne 4, but hopefully, at the very least, Rockstar Ontario and those refugees from the Vancouver branch get a chance to put their talent into the pile. Max Payne 3 wasn’t exactly a huge leap forward for the franchise, but had some interesting ideas at play. It would be a shame for the success of that game to go unnoticed, and for no sequel to have even been attempted.
And, of course, our thoughts go out to those Rockstar developers who find themselves in an unfortunate state of flux, and we hope they land safely on their feet.
Do you think that the Rockstar brand isn’t as strong as it once was? Are you hopeful for the future of the Max Payne franchise?
Source: Take-Two Interactive
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Ive read about this a couple times and too me it doesn’t seem nearly as up in the air as you have presented it
Yea it just seems like they just moved everybody into a bigger studio. Thats whats being posted on other news sites.
I actually wouldn’t mind Max Payne 3 being the end of the series. How much more crap can Max be put through? I think if they chose to keep developing past this point, no matter how amazing the combat would be, would stretch the source material thin–and it’s already been stretched pretty far.
As for Rockstar, I think they’re just going to get bigger and better. GTA V is going to blow gamers’ minds (and hopefully we’ll see more DLC for that game than we saw for GTA IV, awesome as the two episodes were).
I think it would be great to continue the MAX PAYNE games. The action, bullet time, shoot dodge is the best i’ve seen so far. I guess the only con will be the cut scenes. after i have end a game i don’t like to see the same cut scenes all over again with a new game. i just want to exit and get gaming. max payne 3 was my first of the series, i think it is good. this is my personal view. it was better than gta 4. gta 4 to me was a let down i was bored after i completed all the missions and side missions. hopefull gta 5 will be better. i am looking for max payne 4.
I think the whole industry has to take some setbacks. The one downside to taking years to develop and refine a video game till it’s nearly perfect is the lack of profit until the game is released. Rockstar makes good quality games that take a while to make so I’m not surprised they had to make some cutbacks. But I’d still believe that Rockstar is the strongest gaming company. Hopefully Bully 2 does get made and hopefully Max Payne 4 will be made in the future
Yes Yes Yes to Bully 2!!!