I thought I might mention it anyways, since certain keywords in resumes really stand out to me.

Sometimes nothing turns to be nothing and sometimes it turns out to be something.

Wallace D. Robinson is Lead Lighting Artist for Rockstar Toronto.

He worked for Rockstar San Diego for more than 5 years, where most of his time was spent on Red Dead Redemption.

Max Payne 3 was announced in 2009, when he was still in SD working on RDR.

When he moved to Rockstar Toronto in August 2011, he started work on an "Undisclosed Project". Apparently, R* Toronto is working on another project and it's not Max Payne 3.

Also, pay attention to his job description:

* He copied-and-pasted his RDR job description to his Undisclosed Project.
* Developers use "Unannounced" and "Untitled" for game names that haven't been selected yet or announced. "Undisclosed" typically means existing franchise.
* He has RAGE experience with RDR and R* Toronto has also been working with the RAGE Engine for Max Payne 3.

I don't see why RDR would need a lighting artist (unless it was more than a PC port) though, so this could be Bully 2 using the RAGE engine, or another game they're working on besides Max Payne 3.

I've always found that Rockstar employees are even more careful than Blizzard when it comes to posting online information, but I'll dig around to see if I can find out anything else. It's probably too early into the project to find anything though.

All of the Rockstar Studio websites (e.g. Leeds, San Diego, Toronto, etc) are now being redirected back to the main Rockstargames.com website.

Apparently, that test they did on August 25th was indeed a preparation for this big day (e.g. the GTA V announcement.)

Right on the front page.

Teaser trailer will be posted there on November 2, 2011.

Apparently, all those resume searches and voice acting job finds really did indicate GTA 5 even though everyone (including Rockstar) was saying otherwise. :)

Good timing for the "Gaming Leaks; a How To" posts too. Now you know how people found out about GTA 5 earlier this year.

• Rockstar has officially announced the release dates of LA Noire PC. No one cares. Everyone just wants to know when Red Dead Redemption PC is coming out.


• Apparently, LA Noire also turned out exactly as Daeity had predicted. High sales in the beginning, will never be able to match RDR sales, novel type game, linear, and with very little re-playability. That's the biggest complaint that most users have now.. once you beat it, there's no point in playing it again. With the death of the main character, what's really the point in DLC now?


• Here's a really good video embedded below about the future of AAA MMO's, operating costs of MMOs, and gamer psychology regarding subscription fees. I pretty much agree with everything he said.

* The big news is that the Beta Opt In rules have suddenly been changed. Previously, it was anyone who owned an Active Battle.net account which required any Blizzard game. Now, it's only anyone with an active World of Warcraft or Starcraft 2 account.

So, for those veteran accounts who have been playing Diablo 2 for 10 years.. they have no chance of getting into the Diablo 3 beta. Starcraft 2 players do, though.

The claim was later refuted, reconfirmed, refuted, reconfirmed, and then refuted again. These were all done by CMs or GMs.. so who really knows what internal rules are really being followed.

I've been told that there are other unofficial rules too.. like unsupported video cards won't make the beta, certain system specs, and "flagged accounts".

What's really interesting about this sudden change in the beta rules, is that it comes 1 week after I wrote about this exact same strategy. I've always known that the blog was monitored by Blizzard, and thankfully Daeity had hooked me up with some tools to track that sort of thing. There's a Blizzard system, for example, that has been "pinging" the blog twice a day at pre programmed intervals for quite a while now. It "watches" front page and new posts only. Just a very strange coincidence that after that blogspot about B.Net accounts, they changed the rules exactly for that situation. :)

* If you're interested in a Diablo 3 Beta "Offline Crack", there's a server emulator in the works. You can get all the information you want here. It's very early stages and something marginally playable is still several weeks away.

* More news from Rockstar, as expected. The release date for Max Payne 3 has been announced.. once that's out of the way, should free up some room for a RDR PC port announcement.

* Blizzard announced 6 games within the next 3 years at the recent Citigroup conference. These games are: Diablo 3, D3 X1, SC2 X2, SC2, X3, WOW X4, and WOW X5. This is all very very old news though and practically everyone already knew all about this. Not sure why this was suddenly "news" on so many gaming sites.

* I was going to add a bunch of stuff about illegal online gambling in this post, but it got so huge that I had to create a brand new post for it. I'll put it up later when it's done.

* I was thinking about writing an article on the "New" Diablo 3 Blackmarket that will emerge. You know, potential changes to the blackmarket now that Blizzard is running their own ingame Cash Auction House.

For example; because RMAH will not be available to Hardcore players, that's one market where items will be available. Because of the rarity and risk involved for farmers, the value of items will be substantially more expensive than Blizzard's RMAH. The size of the Hardcore community is a factor at play here too.

Third party websites will also sell the cheaper items (but in larger volume) with no listing fees. The big seller here won't necessarily be high end gear, but probably items or mats instead.

But, what other kind of stuff? Maybe Hardcore character sales? Maybe even the same stuff sold on the RMAH, but without the listing fee. It all depends on the listing fee, but I'll be pretty disappointed if it's more than $0.20 per item.

I really like the new RMAH, mostly because it's new and different for such a popular franchise, and it creates new forms of competition and tactics in the industry. I'm looking forwards to seeing how the market will evolve, and how Blizzard will combat competitors.

Funny how simple website changes and past trends can determine when big shake ups will be happening within organizations.. or more specially, Take Two / Rockstar.

Past trends can give you a really good idea of approximately when announcements will be made or what the announcements will be. But, any other small events (like sudden forum maintenance or website domain changes) can help fine tune your predictions.

By the way, it looks like all of their websites have now been redirected back to their original domains instead of centralized at Rockstar HQ. It was all done pretty quickly, so it appears that they might be testing a future change and possibly making more "internal changes" to additional studios.

It was just announced that Team Bondi is closing their doors, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Expect many more announcements or internal restructuring over the next couple months.

Anyone out there watching their stock prices?

That Activision Blizzard Analyst Day call is today too.. should be a good news day. :)

** Update

Another group of layoffs has hit within Take Two. This time at 2K Games Mafia 2 studio.

The RockstarToronto.com and RockstarVancouver webpages are no more, they've taken them down and are now being re directed to the main Rockstargames.com website. Those are the only two sites I had followed, but if there were any other independent Rockstar websites, they would all have been changed as well.

The new Rockstar Toronto website has also been updated with the following statement: "Presently, Rockstar Toronto is working away on multiple titles, including the forthcoming Max Payne 3."

They been hiring many new employees over the past few months, for both console and PC positions. Once Max Payne 3 is finally completed, we'll have a much better idea of the other titles they're working on. Hopefully RDR PC.

The Rockstar Vancouver page mentions that they're only working on Max Payne 3 right now. Rockstar has been very quiet about the MP3 development progress and there hasn't been a release date although it's suspected to be late 2012. It's been delayed multiple times so far.

Rockstar Vancouver has been hiring for Audio/Gameplay Programmer and Level Scripter/QA positions over the past several months. I can't tell if they are hiring for the same position over and over though. All of the other Rockstar divisions are currently hiring, but Vancouver has nothing on their job board as of today. Rockstar Toronto, though, has been on hiring blitzes all year for several different jobs and they're still hiring.

That raises an eyebrow. Everyone is hiring except for Rockstar Vancouver, they're only working on Max Payne 3, possibly hiring for a couple replacement jobs only, it's been delayed multiple times, and Rockstar doesn't like talking about it.

Rockstar just announced (a day before the webpage changes) that they'll be presenting at the upcoming 8th Annual Equity Growth Conference. It will be taking place on September 13, 2011. I'm not expecting any big announcements from this conference.. the only thing that came out of last years talk was that "Kids Are Embarrassed To Play Wii According To Take-Two". However, a few weeks later there were huge shake ups within Take Two, and Ben Feder (the guy who gave the talk at G7 Equity Growth) stepped down as CEO of Take Two.

I wonder if there will be any other shake ups (e.g. firings or layoffs) this coming October or sooner. September might be a good time to sell stock and then purchase back in November at a lower value. :)

So Homefront launched today, I forgot all about it actually. =]

It will be a couple days before THQ releases sales figures information (if it's not doing so well, though, they won't release many details or even make an announcement at all.) The revelation of the Single Player mission being only 5 hours long couldn't have helped matters.

I'm always interested in future predictions made by industry experts, but that sort of information is very difficult to come by. No one wants to make educated guesses any more (for fear of being incorrect), and most analysts wait until the last minute (eg 24 hours after launch to make a "prediction of first week's sales") or wait until they can see Pre-Order numbers before making any predictions.

Here are the most prominent sales predictions for Homefront, for example:

1. Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian predicts 1.5 million sales by the end of this month.

2. Michael Pachter doesn't expect Homefront sales to do very well, but he never provided any figures and kept his comments as vague as possible (he's been doing this more often unfortunately).

3. And then there's "HULIQ", they forecasted that sales figures for Homefront will hit 1.25 million in the first 6 months and 2 million by 12 months. Provided, of course, that they release one high-quality DLC, and offer a stable multiplayer experience, etc. I've never heard of HULIQ before, but the webpage looks a little sketchy and needs some major updates.

Most recent reviews of Homefront have made one thing very certain: the multiplayer experience isn't anything like Black Ops. In BO, an inexperienced camper can just stand in one place and get a 20-kill streak. Homefront is different, leaving brainless gamers very frustrated with the game since they won't survive as long as they could in BO (or earn achievements as quickly). Experienced players are finding the multiplayer experience quite refreshing and fun however. It's like Cataclysm Heroics for FPS players.

So, although initial sales won't be as high during the first week - I think the game can have some real staying power thanks to it's multiplayer experience (the "perk" system looks very cool too).

I wish that there were more industry experts out there predicting this kind of stuff though, even if they're wrong at least they can give a reason as to WHY they made their prediction. The best articles I've read are the ones with figures, past comparisons, trends, and logical reasoning as to why they picked that number.

For example, consider LA Noire.

I make a lot of decisions based on what people are saying about the game, and the general consensus is that LA Noire is going to be an awesome game. But, I'm getting a very bad feeling about what people are really saying about it.

Most are saying it awesome, but they're not saying the gameplay or story is awesome, they're praising the setting and new facial capture technology. It's not, "You gotta play this game, it's brilliant and so fun!", instead it's "OMG. Check out that facial capture technology! Look at their faces, they're so real! The faces! The faces!".

For those fortunate enough to have played the LA Noire demo, they played the best parts: the clue gathering and interrogation mini-games. However, 20 minutes isn't enough time to make a decision about the game.. did they consider that they would be playing the same mini-games over and over and over throughout the entire length of the game?

The game has been described as Rockstar's most adult oriented or "serious game". It's a slower paced game than their other lineups, and a lot of time has been spent on facial capture and voice acting. So, you can anticipate a LOT of cut scenes and player conversations.

From what I've seen, it appears to be a very linear (and slow paced) interactive detective novel, with conversational mini-games, and a lot of cut scenes that could potentially interfere with gameplay. Once the novelty of their faces and voice acting wear off, that's what you're left with.

Word is that it's impossible to fail a case too (all of the cases are pre-determined too, it's not like Clue where there are random killings, random scenarios, and random evidence.)

I know that I'm going to enjoy the game myself, but I'm getting a bad feeling that many players are going to be disappointed after playing the game "for real". Re-playability is also a big concern in it's present state, but it can be solved through DLC.

Bethesda's games for example (Fallout 3, Oblivion, Morrowind, etc.) I absolutely loved, but I _hated_ the same old NPC interactions and vendor menus (which they replicated across all of their games). It's the one thing I never really like about the game, but fortunately they weren't a significant part of the game. In LA Noire, player interactions ARE a big part of the game. When questioning suspects, I suspect that players will start seeing the exact same facial cues and "looks" over-and-over, which kills a lot of the fun in try to determine guilt, innocence, or deception (of course, they need to dumb it down though so as not to frustrate inexperience players.)

Pachter said that he would never underestimate Rockstar again, so whimsically predicted that LA Noire would sell as many games as Red Dead Redemption had. Problem is, Rockstar is publishing the game this time around.. Team Bondi is developer. The reason he underestimated RDR the first time is because he thought the genre/setting was too limited. I think this is true for LA Noire though, a western shooter has a tremendous market size compared to a detective game.

Is it mostly an interactive detective novel though? Do most people realize that it's not like GTA/RDR in terms of gameplay? I don't know.

What I do know is that I'm getting the same old SPORE-like vibe from this upcoming game release. Screenshots and demos are showing off the best parts (to control perception of the game), there's a huge amount of hype, gameplay videos are limited, players are expecting one thing (but they're going to get something different), and gamers are forgetting about re-playability and repetition (e.g. mini-games) within the game.

Anyways.. I think there's going to be a big explosion of sales during the first month, as people will be expecting the currently promoted game (the perception is RDR in the 1940's), but they'll be getting something completely different out of the box. Once the initial novelty wears off though, sales will decline and I don't think they'll reach the same heights as RDR. Either way, though, first day sales are definitely going to be highly successful for Rockstar.

Red Dead Redemption has been doing exceptionally well and Rockstar just didn't anticipate how successful the game was going to be. But, there's still no update or confirmation from Rockstar whether there is going to be a Red Dead Redemption PC Port or not.

Recently however, I noticed something a little interesting from our favorite little team in Oakville, Ontario.

Rockstar Toronto has been seeing a lot of action these past few months and they're on a hiring spree for new talent. Now, job postings are worded in such a way not to reveal any games that they're working on.. but a recent Senior Animator posting (Dec 17) caught my attention.

Here's what they wrote:

"At Rockstar Toronto, we provide a highly creative work environment and develop some of the most respected and widely recognized titles in video games for current and next-gen consoles including: The Warriors, ManHunt 2, Bully, Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption."

The reason that this is so interesting is that Rockstar Toronto has NEVER been associated with Red Dead Redemption.

If you've read my earlier post on RDR, you'll know that Rockstar Toronto did indeed do a little outsourced work for RDR. However, they were never recognized for that work by anyone, Rockstar Toronto is NOT listed in the credits, and even the R* Toronto and the HQ websites do NOT attribute RDR with R* Toronto in any way! If you check out R* Toronto's release list - Red Dead Redemption is NOT listed. Officially, RDR is not linked to R* Toronto in any way.

This is actually the first time Rockstar Toronto has officially associated themselves with Red Dead Redemption, and Rockstar claims that it's "future" work (ie, "next-gen consoles") too. =]

Very interesting..

Not only that, check out that "At Rockstar Toronto, we provide.." line - it's actually a standard recruiting post that they have used many times. HOWEVER, all of their past job posts only stated "The Warriors, ManHunt 2, Bully and Grand Theft Auto IV." It's suddenly changed in the past week to include RDR. Hmmm...

This all might just be an accident by their recruiting department (ie, either they weren't aware that RDR shouldn't have been associated with R* Toronto OR they accidentally revealed that R* Toronto is working on it.) With RDR being such a huge success though, I'm going to remain optimistic that they'll be working on RDR PC once they get LA Noire out of the way.

In related news, Take Two just filed trademarks for LA Noire related merchandising (e.g. "ring tones, wallpapers, screensavers, graphics, digital music files, videos, films and other multimedia materials" etc.) I guess they're expecting it to be a pretty big hit. I just can't see it though, even the title alone targets a niche market of gamers.

At the same time, they have also filed two other trademarks. The big one was "ROCKSTAR FILMS", a new division of Rockstar that will be producing animated motion pictures starting with Red Dead Redemption machinima. The third new trademark was for Red Dead Redemption films (Note: animated motion picture, not live action). It looks like Take Two wants to do the same thing Bobby Kotick mentioned a few months ago.

* Update:

They've also updated their Rockstar Games and R* Trademarks to include "Animated motion picture films". They have trademarked an animated series, film and "TV programs" planned for LA Noire if it's a big hit.

There's also a trademark for a Bioshock Infinite "live action motion picture", as well as videos, films, and an animated series. (Rockstar has a webpage planned where users can watch animated and live-action series based on their games.) The Line has also been trademarked for films, an animated series, and TV programs. Bioshock was the only one with "live action" mentioned however. =]

It's a good business plan.. might as well utilize those hundreds of idling Cinematic Artists rather than the seasonal firing-and-rehiring process.

Activision-Blizzard's Third Quarter Investor conference call will be taking place next week (Nov 4.) I'm excited.

Sure, it sounds boring to you - but these are the calls where they review the company's current situation (I look forwards to the raw data to get a better insight into the company) and discuss future strategic plans or growth for the following quarter that will generate even more profit for their investors. Sometimes the results of these calls won't be made public for a few weeks following, but some information will typically leak out.

BlizzCon is reserved for all of the big Blizzard announcements, but this upcoming investor meeting might describe a plan for some future Activision/Blizzard interaction. There's a strong possibility, for example, that Activision may announce full integration of their own software line (complete with digital downloads, social interaction, match-making, etc.) on Blizzard's Battle.net service.

Activision will give the typical speech to bolster customer and investor confidence (ie, Blizzcon was a big success, WOTLK launch in China was a big success, upcoming Cataclysm release will be a big success, blah blah blah) especially since they performed so poorly last quarter.

But I'm hoping that there will be a hint at more "console development", but not actually point their finger's in Blizzard's direction. Or maybe they will. =]

Back in August, I made a post about how Diablo 3 looked like it was designed (with purpose) for console platforms. It had the perfect GUI, interface, and gameplay. WOW & SC2 are no where near close, but D3 is ready for the transition. It would be fitting for Diablo to be back on consoles too.. third time's a charm, right?

The reason I'm mentioning this now, is because just recently Blizzard has been hinting at D3 development for consoles and the information is being picked up by various gaming news sites.

In other news, I was anticipating a Red Dead Redemption PC port announcement this November as their quarterly announcements were supposed to happen next month. There aren't any gaming conventions occurring during the next quarter, so most of their big announcements would have been taking place next month. I'm was really hoping for a RDR PC announcement too, but it will probably be about GTA 5 (a new GTA release wouldn't be the only reason for moving their Fiscal Year by the way - that would just be silly).

HOWEVER, they just MOVED their Fiscal Quarter! (Yes, this is legal with special approval.)

That's actually big news in itself. =]

There are only a few reasons why a company would be moving it's Fiscal Year-End. Sometimes it's done by companies who want to match their own Fiscal Year with that of their parent company, sometimes it's for minimizing taxes (meaning that they're hurting financially), sometimes it's due to the termination of a partnership (hmmm...), sometimes they do it because there are indications of (seasonally) low revenue, or sometimes it's if they will be giving up control of their corporation (EA has been interested in Take-Two for a while now).

Most likely though is that they have some MAJOR re-structuring planned for the next few months and their revenue isn't as high as they were expecting. There are two things that can happen: they need to reduce costs or they need to increase profits by pumping out more releases and at a faster pace. =]

On a related note (ie, "re-structuring" in the future), Rockstar Toronto has been hiring a lot more people recently. Game Programmers, Designers, and Support Staff.. and they all seem to be replacements due to attrition. Maybe the Rockstar remote sites know something we don't?

With this recent announcement though, it's safe to say that there's something big coming down the pipe. I'm predicting lay-offs, as it's always the easier way out and the path taken by most companies these days (ie, when they need to cut expenses to increase profit, rather than using money to make more money.)

Update (10/29/10):

Take-Two just made a new announcement, so yeah - there's definitely some major re-organization taking place. Their CEO is stepping down. =]

This is a good indication that they might be giving up control of the corporation (ie, being acquired by Electronic Arts), hence one of the reasons for moving their Fiscal Year. There are some other companies that were interested as well (including Activision), but EA is the front runner.

I still think there's more lay-offs on the way. Many people will say that Take-Two has been doing really well. Sure, they have been doing well but not "well enough" and investors want them to do better. Besides this upcoming reorganization, it will also give Take-Two more time to develop their various (ongoing) technologies and work on their big name games. Should be interesting.. I'm looking forwards to their next game announcements. It'll most likely be sequels though, and no new IPs. =[

Another Update:

Apparently this post caught the attention of many employees from Take Two and Rockstar. =]

The visitor log has been showing a lot of visits from the internal offices of Take Two. Apparently, they must not have a very strict policy for internet usage. =] There are multiple hits from a few external facing IP addresses: Take-Two Interactive Software (69.10.95.2), Rockstar Games (69.10.69.2), Rockstar Toronto (63.145.31.10), Rockstargames Ltd (212.46.144.57), etc.

(On a related note, I still get visited by Blizzard employees a lot too. They haven't been posting any new comments though since that last guy.)

So anyways, it appears that because of Take-Two's latest announcement there's a stock trader "feeding frenzy" going on and they're looking for as much information as possible. It's pretty funny watching all of the guess work going on.

Unfortunately, all of their visits were very specific as many were only looking at the one page and ignoring previous posts from months ago when I was mentioning Rockstar Toronto activities. I followed Rockstar Toronto specifically since I was primarily interested in the Red Dead Redemption PC port and they're the team most likely to produce it. Guess we'll find out soon enough.

Update (01/27/11):

I was right. =]

Now, management at Rockstar London and Lincoln have also been given their pink slips. These are just the big names though that were made public, but there have been many other exits as well within Take Two over the past few months.

There are also rumors of more impending layoffs at the Rockstar London facility.

It seems like just yesterday when Take Two was denying studio layoffs, and claimed that there were no impending layoffs, or an intention to lay off 20% of it's workforce in an attempt to "restructure and improve it's financial standing." Some of the rumors confirmed apparently.

Take Two has just filed for a new trademark officially called R*. It's going to be an online music store featuring "music and digital music downloadable from the Internet and wireless devices." It will also be offering ringtones for cellphones, MP3 downloads, other audiovisual and entertainment content.

Rockstar Games currently has a partnership with Amazon.com and iTunes, and right now you can only order their music through those other stores. But it looks like they want to cut out the middle-man and start selling the music directly to the consumers themselves. (I wonder if Apple and Amazon know about this yet? Their partnerships only started a couple years ago actually.) =]

Soon, you'll be able to purchase music CDs, such as "The Music of Grand Theft Auto IV", Red Dead Redemption, and other greatest hits from most (if not all) of their games directly from Rockstar's new online music store.

Here's a link to the Trademark registration if you're interested.

And here's a photo of an "example" Music CD used in the registration:


Yeah, I know.. it's kind of boring news, but hey I'm the first to announce it. =]

I'm actually shocked that they didn't already HAVE an online music store.. I didn't even know they didn't have one until I saw the new trademark registration.

It appears that there has been another "confirmation" (but this time in the UK) regarding the next title in Rockstar's RDR series.

As mentioned previously though, the game is not currently planned for existing consoles and was intended for next-gen consoles. Due to successful sales (6.9M), however, that certainly won't stop Rockstar from starting work on RDR3 right now.. after all, RDR2 (aka Red Dead Redemption) was originally developed for the PS2 & XBOX and then they updated the graphics and migrated it to the PS3/XBOX360. If the PS4/XBOX720 doesn't hit their release targets (2011-2012), Rockstar may just release RDR3 for existing consoles.. doubtful though.

You can definitely assume, however, that there will be a lot of DLC releases for RDR3 and the series. Most game developers have already jumped onto the DLC-bandwagon.. and others are joining (well, the greedy ones anyways). It's a great way to rush a game to retail, release half a game, and then release the rest of the game (incl. story endings and "closure") in small parts that you can charge money for. =]

Note: "Revolution" was actually a subtitle used for a demo video showing off RDR2 in-game content (fictional Mexican revolutionaries and missions). Although, the official RDR3 title could just as easily be changed to Revenge, Rebellion, Reckoning, Remembrance, Revelations, etc. etc.

In one of my previous posts, I had mentioned that Rockstar Toronto would most likely be the team doing the Red Dead Redemption PC Port.

Well, there's been some minor activity there.. finally. They've closed off their IT Manager position offer, and have opened up a new position: User Interface Designer.

Here are the current positions that they're hiring for:

1. Character Artist
2. Game Programmer
3. Gameplay Scripter
4. Graphics Programmer
5. User Interface Designer

The artist/game designer positions haven't changed in years mind you.

On the Rockstar Toronto homepage, the IT Manager text was quietly swapped out with UI Designer. And the new position was posted on Monster a couple days ago, and on Craigslist just yesterday.

There has been some concern from the employees at Rockstar Toronto because of Take-Two/Rockstar's many lay-offs and uncertain future. Whether the UI Designer position is because of attrition or because of a new project - it's still a good sign.

The reason that this is a good sign is because RDR requires a new user interface for Windows (the current UI isn't designed for keyboard/mouse interaction). All of the voice, music, and graphics content and assets have been created already. In order for a PC Port to be created, the development team will need a couple designers, a few scripters, a project lead, and a lot of programmers. Maybe a level designer and a few artists too if they intend to add extra content to the RDR PC version. Rockstar Toronto already has the required team members, except that they were missing a UI Developer. =]

Also, Jerome Lacote was the User Interface Artist at Rockstar Games (San Diego) who did all of the UI design and artwork for Red Dead Redemption. He left the company just last month (July 2010), and they're looking to hire someone with the same qualifications in Toronto. Here's a link to his resume if you're interested.

We should know more by the first week of December 2010 (when Take-Two makes their official announcements), unless there's an early leak from the next Quarterly shareholders meeting.

* UPDATE (08/27/2010)

They've just updated their website again (www.rockstartoronto.com), and have removed the "Gameplay Scripter" position. This is probably the most activity the webpage has seen in several years.. =]

Take-Two has confirmed that they just laid off 30 staff from their Visual Concepts studio (they are the developers of the 2K Sports titles). (Link)

The reason for the lay offs?

"In order to properly align its resources with its current and future goals, and to continue to develop games as efficiently as possible, 2K Sports has eliminated approximately 30 positions at its Visual Concepts studio. These reductions will not affect 2K Sports’ ability to create and deliver AAA titles, including its upcoming release of NBA 2K11."

This is some of the activity I've been on the lookout for since my earlier post on the Red Dead Redemption PC port. Could this be a sign of Take-Two trimming the hedges with future lay-offs on the way? Many of the Rockstar offices have been pretty scared the past several months waiting to see what their future holds.

The reason for this might simply because of the amount of money they can potentially lose because of the franchise, Gamespot explains. It makes sense though, based on the timing. Next quarter is probably when we'll see some more activity.

Will there be a PC port and if so, when? This is the big question on everyone's mind.

The official statement on Rockstargames.com on June 10, 2010 was "As of now, there are no current plans to bring Red Dead Redemption to the PC platform. If that should change, we will let you know."

Which basically means, "we're not sure right now, we're still deciding whether to release it or not and who will be porting it."

This actually fits in with something that I learned from a source about 3-4 weeks before the announcement. I can write about this now that I'm doing the blog-thing. :)

When all of those mass layoffs occured at Rockstar, most of the positions impacted were animators, technical/graphic artists, tool developers, and audio techs. Basically, the grunt workers, content and story creators. Although it wasn't announced, Rockstar Toronto also lost some people in Jan/Feb 2010 (I'm not sure if those were included in the official "40 laid off" figure).

Rockstar Toronto is the team that ported GTA IV from console to PC (with a little help from Rockstar North.) For the GTA expansion packs (e.g. Lost & Damned, Gay Tony), North did the console version and Toronto did the PC version.

What you didn't know is that Rockstar Toronto was actually involved in the development of Red Dead Redemption too. They did a lot of the graphics work and correction of assets and props provided by San Diego (had to be updated from their PS2/XBOX counterparts.) You wouldn't know this, though, because they weren't listed in the game credits. =]

Matt Kazan's blog also has some other juicy insider details about Rockstar. He worked on a game called "We Are The Mods" when he joined Rockstar in 2006. It was a follow-up to their hit game "The Warriors". Check out his blog if you're interested in more details about that cancelled game.

As it stands, Rockstar has let go of the content developers since they already built the game and were no longer needed.. but they still have the PC porting team. Rockstar Toronto is the primary team for PC ports and they have working knowledge of RDR, so it stands to reason that Toronto will be the group doing the Red Dead Redemption PC port.

RDR Sales Figures - Does it makes sense to port?

Red Dead Redemption sold 1.8M on their opening week and approx. 5.2M have been sold as of today. Their return on investment was roughly twice what they put into development (it cost $80-100M to make).

By comparison, GTA IV had $100M development costs (7x return) and MW had $50M development costs (20x return). And then there's WoW. Development costs, server upkeep, staff payroll, hardware support, customer service, etc totaled $100M for the first 4 years of operation. (Kotaku has conflicting sources for this information though, in one article they say it cost $100M and in the other article it says $200M). Either way, the return has been tremendous. =]

So, RDR really hasn't even come close to the success of GTA IV but it did still make an operating profit of 50% which is pretty good. The cost of porting the game from consoles to PC is just a fraction of the original development costs too, so it will be highly profitable even if they only sell 500,000 copies. (Note: PC sales will never even come close to the console sales for various reasons.)

PC ports from Rockstar have had many issues (which have significantly impacted sales), but they're getting better. For example, PC versions are very late on delivery and everyone would have bought a PS3/XBOX360 version by then. The other reason for poor sales was because of buggy ports and bad reviews (GTA IV was called "the worst release" and "worst PC port" by many, but I think Rockstar Toronto has learned from their mistakes. Most bugs have been fixed, and their expansion packs have been successful.) And then there's the piracy scapegoat. But, it's still in Take-Two's best interest to push Rockstar's PC port forwards.

When Will There Be An Announcement?

There was a 8 month gap between the announcement and release dates of the GTA IV console vs. PC port. Unfortunately, there are really no trends to compare to, but there could be an announcement made before November of this year.

The reason I selected November is because there has been something interesting going on the Toronto office over the past couple months. Apparently, there has been a fear of job loss, there has been some "preparation" going on, and some employees have been putting out their resumes. The impression I received was that Rockstar HQ hasn't decided what exactly to do with Rockstar Toronto and they're currently taking a step-back to re-evaluate their offices, projects and expenses. My guess is that there is probably pressure on the other Rockstar offices as well.

(Addendum: Take-Two's fiscal year will be ending on 10/31/2010 and typically their announcements are made a couple months following - meaning the first week of December 2010. If there's bad news, it will probably be made in November, but if it's good news it will be on target for the first week of Dec. I'm hoping for good news. =] Now I suppose the decision could have been made in Q3, meaning an official statement at the end of Aug / start of September but it would depend on the development status of Max Payne 3.)

Toronto is currently assisting with the development of Max Payne 3, so I'll learn more once that project is cleaned off of their plates.

If the Rockstar Toronto office gets the axe though, it will result in either the cancellation or severe delay of RDR PC development. We'll probably see something happen before November though, as it never looks good to lay off people right before Christmas. If they don't get shutdown, though, their next (most likely) project after Max Payne 3 will be RDR PC. Guess we'll see..

Another delay in the Max Payne 3 development might push these estimates back though. (Then again, there was a 2 year difference between Bully PS2 and the PC port. So, if nothing happens with Rockstar Toronto this year and they work on a different project after Max 3, I'll have to change my forecast to a date much farther away.) But still, these are a lot of "signs" to work with and it's interesting information to know.

Other than that, if you're a console user and waiting in anticipation for RDR3 (internally, Redemption was actually called RDR2), you're in for a long wait. There's nothing currently planned for a PS3/XBOX360 sequel, but Rockstar does have some intended DLC releases though (worked well for GTAIV), and RDR3 (aka Red Dead Revolution) will be eventually developed for the PS4 and XBOX 720.

Will update as I learn more.

* UPDATE: As predicted, something BIG did happen and just a couple days before November (3 months after this post). =]

Take Two has MOVED their Fiscal Quarter (very rare)! Not only that, but MAJOR restructuring has taken place and even their CEO has stepped down. Big news indeed. Because of this massive shift, all of their announcements will be impacted as well (ie, moved to the next quarter.)