Rockstar Vancouver: History and Key Facts

Rockstar Vancouver Inc. (formerly Barking Dog Studios Ltd.) was a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Vancouver. The studio is best known for developing Bully (2006).

Six former Radical Entertainment developers—Glenn Barnes, Peter Grant, Michael Gyori, Christopher Mair, Brian Thalken, and Sean Thompson—founded the company as Barking Dog Studios in May 1998. In its early years, Barking Dog briefly assisted Relic Entertainment with Homeworld (1999) before being greenlit to develop an expansion pack, Homeworld: Cataclysm (2000). The studio also developed Counter-Strike's "Beta 5" update (1999), Global Operations (2002), and Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon (2002). Take-Two Interactive acquired Barking Dog in August 2002 and integrated it with Rockstar Games as Rockstar Vancouver. The studio then developed Bully and was one of the Rockstar Games studios leading the development of Max Payne 3 (2012). In July 2012, Rockstar Games merged Rockstar Vancouver into Rockstar Toronto, with Rockstar Vancouver's 35 employees being given the option to relocate to Rockstar Toronto or any other Rockstar Games studio.

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