Students, take out your notebooks: Rockstar’s latest move is a textbook lesson in Canadian geography, and the result could mean a long-awaited return to Bullworth Academy. The worldwide developer is merging its Vancouver and Toronto studios (Rockstar Vancouver and Rockstar Toronto, respectively) into a new office in Oakville, Ontario under the single Rockstar Toronto moniker.
The change will take place over the next six months, with the 35-member team at Rockstar Vancouver being invited to join Rockstar Toronto at their brand-new, custom built facility in Ontario or take positions with other Rockstar teams around the world. Jennifer Kolbe, Vice President of Publishing and Operations for Rockstar Games, had the following to say in a press release that went out earlier this evening:
"Expanding Rockstar Toronto and bringing our Canadian development talent together under one roof underscores our commitment to building world-class teams that can make the kind of groundbreaking entertainment experiences Rockstar Games is known for. We believe a single Canadian team will make for a powerful creative force on future projects."
So, what future projects might those be? Rockstar Toronto’s past credits include The Warriors and PC versions of Grand Theft Auto IV and its expansions. We don’t anticipate a sequel to Rockstar’s film adaptation, so it’s feasible that this aggressive expansion could be tied to development on a PC version of Grand Theft Auto V. On the flip side, Rockstar Vancouver is best known for creating PlayStation 2 classic Bully and, more recently, Max Payne 3. It’s far too early to expect a sequel to the latter, but a return to Bullworth Academy has been a long time coming. Maybe Rockstar is combining its two Canadian studios to bring fans the much-requested Bully 2.
In true Rockstar Games fashion, we probably won’t hear about what the new Rockstar Toronto is cooking for years. In the meantime, we’re pretty amped for Grand Theft Auto V (which might appear at this year’s Gamescom), so at least we’ve got that to look forward to!