Take Two/Rockstar Reveals Plans, Designer Sues Over GTA

Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting the latest financial results of videogame publisher Take Two/Rockstar, including much information on new titles and plans. The company has announced Red Dead Revolver, "a stylish, western themed, gun-fighting extravaganza" for PS2/Xbox which was originally created for Capcom before developers Angel Studios became Rockstar San Diego and the project was handed over. Also noted is the "expected March release of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City... in Japan", after the licensed-to-Capcom GTA 3 "has sold approximately 300,000 copies... making it one of the most successful debuts of a Western video game in Japan." The company also announced the return of the Army Men franchise on their budget Global Star label, following the dissolution of creator 3DO earlier this year. However, there are also a few issues, as the SEC are unhappy with previous financial dealings, and "plan to recommend civil action against the company for alleged accounting violations", and elsewhere, a Scottish game designer has filed a suit claiming he, uncredited, inspired the design of the Grand Theft Auto series.

Comments

Why does the Cube get screwed?

[Gizzmonic]

Even if Rockstar doesn't want to bother with the costs associated with porting and publishing, why don't they sell the code to someone else? It would make money among those of us who don't want to fork out several hundred dollars in the form of a new console, new controllers, memory cards, etc just to play GTA.

Forget that "it's not financially viable" bullshit. GTA would make money. Tony Hawk made money on the Dreamcast and even the N64 (where Tony Hawk 2 was released just months before the Gamecube).

The problem is, Rockstar is just too fucking greedy. They take bribes out the ass from Sony to keep GTA PS2-only, while taking bribes from Microsoft to port the game over to Xbox. Way to go, Rockstar...you found a clause in your contract that lets you screw everybody. And take all their money.

Wait, all of a sudden, I don't want GTA anymore at all. Fuck those asstards for taking an old idea and humping it dry, then demanding bribes just to put it on their platform. They think they're hot shit now? Shit, there's plenty of imitators out there- I'll just buy True Crime or Simpsons Hit & Run for Gamecube and get the same experience. But first, I'm gonna get really drunk and pee all over the GTA Vice City logo at EBGames. Fuck you Rockstar, I hope Santa shits in your stocking!

Re:Why does the Cube get screwed?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the problem is that the GameCube disks just don't hold enough information. Each one holds about 1.5 gigs, right? But if GTA III and/or Vice City are larger than 1.5 gigs, the game will have to be spread over multiple disks. Sure, it's possible to separate each island/area to a single disk, but there is one problem. The problem is that there are graphics and sounds that have to be used in all islands/areas, this means that all disks must contain a copy of all those radio stations and all the graphics.

We all remember those Final Fantasy and other multi-CD games for the PlayStation, right? The world map (and other multimedia) in the FF games had to be on each of the disks, consuming space on the CD. This eats up space that can be used for more game information (story, text, missions, etc).

This is probably the only real failing of the GameCube. Very large games will have to span multiple disks and that could be difficult for a developer to manage.

Has anyone heard of or seen 'Crime Inc'?

[@madeus]

Has anyone hear of or seen Crime Inc, the game this guy developed?

(or was it just some personal project that was never released publically?)

Re:Has anyone heard of or seen 'Crime Inc'?

[@madeus]

I did read the article, and by which I mean actually read it, not skimmed it and inferred meaning into it. :P

That he showed it in a interview as 'an example of his practical ability' has no bearing on whether or not it was actually released (where possible, I show released and public examples of my software when in interviews).

The article simply says this about it:

His game, Crime Inc, which was developed between 1991 and 1993, involved gangs taking part in street crime.

It does not actually indicate if the game was released to the public. I'd like to know if it was, and if anyone has played it/seen it/knows of screen shots/reviews of it.

It remains to be seen whether is case has merit (like most readers I strongly suspect it does not) but it is a legitimate type of claim - I don't think it's like Carmack claming he had rights over all FPS's (which I think he very possibly could in the US, if he had a patent and pending no prior art). It's much more like Carmack claming rights over a 'game set in the future in which a space marine is sent to Mars and faces single handed armed combat with a large number of zombies and demons' (and the credibility of that claim would depend on exactly what ideas have been 'ripped off'). It's my understanding that the content of the game is the issue of debate (though I'd love to see more of Crime Inc, to know if their are other obvious similarities).

Somewhat iterestingly, I used to work in the building opposite DMA design in Dundee (and look out the window at them, less than 100 yards away), when I worked for SOL/Scottish Telecom. Dundee is a city with two Universities, and an economoy of low wages, mostly in the retail sector (due to complete collapse of industry in the area 1900's). As a result of being a small city, a good distance from any other similar sized cities, and having two Universities (yet with a low wage economy) it has no shortage of skilled workes who can be employed for far below market rates, and in the case of students and given the prestige of DMA, you only need to pay them very little indeed (you basically just need to feed them pizza).

I have heard many times from quite a few people that this is exactly what they did - employ interns as 'cheap/free labour'. This was not entirely a bad deal fo those employed, and they did so willingly, but if they are willing to take such gross advantage of students (who don't really know their own market worth, not only because they arnt in the market place, but because Dundee is not quite in touch with 'rest of the word') then it may set you thinking maybe they are willing to rip off someone interviewies idea.

Unnecessarily harsh

[cgenman]

Right, but nobody at the company remembers him or has any record of him, so that can't be taken as evidence. Google searches yield nothing, and Moby has never heard of him. For a computer consultant, he keeps a very low profile.

While game concepts can't be patented, games can be copyrighted. Think "K.C. Munchkin." Overly derivitave games can and will be shot down in court. But does Gallager have a case? Grand Theft Auto, a sprite-based top-down shooter, looked like most of the other games out there at the time. The artistic style was nice, but it was a straight rip of any number of 16 bit racing games. The "plot" was a laughable joke, mostly "answer phone, assassinate somebody, answer phone, steal a car." Games about crime had been done before, though none made the same cultural splash. Really, the thing that would make or break this case is if the unique mechanic of car jacking was in Gallager's game... but as nobody seems to have seen it, we simply won't know until it goes before a judge.