Rockstar Vancouver closing, absorbed by Rockstar Toronto
Rockstar Vancouver is being dismantled, Take-Two Interactive announced today. The 35-person team, best known for its work on Bully, is being offered new positions at Rockstar's newly-expanded Toronto studio.
Rockstar Vancouver is being dismantled, Take-Two Interactive announced today. The 35-person team, best known for its work on Bully, is being offered new positions at Rockstar Games, specifically the expanded Rockstar Toronto studio.
The plan is to bring all of Rockstar's Canadian development talent "together under one roof." In a press release, Rockstar VP Jennifer Kolbe said that "a single Canadian team will make for a powerful creative force on future projects."
A larger, custom-built facility in Oakville, Ontario will house the expanded Rockstar Toronto team. The expansion is being supported by the Ontario government, although financial details are not being divulged. The new Toronto team will be able to offer 50 new jobs as part of this "strategic partnership with the Ontario government."
Both Rockstar Vancouver and Toronto most recently worked on Max Payne 3.
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replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Rockstar Vancouver closing, absorbed by Rockstar Toronto.
Rockstar Vancouver is being dismantled, Take-Two Interactive announced today. The 35-person team, best known for its work on Bully, is being offered new positions at Rockstar's newly-expanded Toronto studio.-
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In this economy, I find it hard to see any of them not going through with the move though, at least r* isn't saying "too bad, so sad"
I'm looking at you EA, many many times........
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That really sucks. It seems like a few studios in Vancouver have closed.
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The Liberals (conservatives in reality) have almost bankrupted BC, they have no more money for higher tax breaks.
They lost the battle years ago anyway and focused on tv and film production which they've also now lost because Ontario and Toronto have better breaks for production.
The only thing BC has going for it is the VFX industry which has just going fucking haywire here. Though I doubt even that will last very long because companies like ILM have developed what they call a ''pod", basically a mash unit for vfx that can be moved to wherever the highest tax breaks are, long term investment is now considered a dirty idea.-
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Which studios are even left in Vancouver? Yeesh.
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EA Canada, Relic, Microsoft GS Vancouver, Capcom (Blue Castle), Slant Six, United Front Games, Hothead...
A bunch of indies too. But yeah lots of closures lately
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Vancouver never had one for games. It's an incredibly expensive city. Montreal/Toronto are cheaper and have serious tax credits.
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No we've always had one but it was complicated and basically around 17%, then Ontario and Quebec woke up one day and decided they wanted to take that industry so they went up to 37 fucking percent or like Ontario, gave Ubisoft 250 fucking millions dollars over 10 years to open up a studio there. Shortly there after, Ubisoft Vancouver magically closed! magic! Poof!
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No, the BC tax credit is relatively new. The one in Quebec was one of the first digital media tax credit and AFAIK is still the highest.
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Yeah, and there are good reasons to, but they are going overboard. People used to apply for SR&ED and stretch it to it's breaking point. Now they are talking more in depth audits and that's frightening even legit applicants. Also, they are skewing it for larger companies who often don't need the money, but they have full time staff whose job it is to maximize grants and shit that smaller companies don't.
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Actually they have for a couple years. It's the BC Digital Media Tax Credit:
http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/business/income_taxes/corporation_income_tax/tax_credits/interactive_digital_media.htm-
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Yeah, there has to be a combination of reasons because moving operations isn't cheap.
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Yeah, just heard from some friends. Vancouver is becoming a development wasteland.
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Just a reminder to everyone that Rockstar Vancouver was originally Barking Dog, who worked on a bunch of CS during the days.
I still love the Pop Dog soda logo in those old maps.
Of course no one from Barking Dog(well probably no one) is still there, but that's the lineage of the studio. -
Wow, WTF happened to Vancouver? Went from the Game Dev capital of North America to this Detroit style wasteland.
