Rockstar Toronto

As Imagexcel and GameTek Canada (1988–1999)

Imagexcel was founded around 1988, as a sister company to Gray Matter. Under that name, the company produced games such as Techno Cop (1988) and The Ultimate Ride (1990), together with Gray Matter, with their final game under the Imagexcel having been Quarantine (1994).^[1][2]

On 9 March 1995, the company was announced to have been acquired by Alternative Reality Technology (ART), a subsidiary of GameTek, becoming GameTek Canada.^[3] The acquisition was completed by 7 April 1995.^[4] As part of ART, the company developed Quarantine II: Road Warrior, which was released in 1996,^[5] and Dark Colony, which was released in 1997.^[6] On 31 July 1997, Take-Two Interactive announced that they had acquired several assets from GameTek, including ART with GameTek Canada, GameTek's European offices, and distribution rights to GameTek's Dark Colony, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune games.^[7]

As part of Rockstar Games (1999–present)

In early 1999, GameTek Canada was merged out of ART and was turned into Rockstar Canada, a new studio in Take-Two Interactive's newly-established Rockstar Games company tree. Although their first duties covered creating two Grand Theft Auto expansion packs, London 1969 and Lonson 1961,^[8] their primary tasks later became ports of titles published by Rockstar Games to PlayStation 2, that being Oni (2001)^[9] and Max Payne (2001).^[10]

On 1 August 2002, Take-Two Interactive announced the acquisition of Barking Dog Studios, which would be renamed Rockstar Vancouver.^[11] As part of the acquisition, Rockstar Canada would be renamed Rockstar Toronto to avoid confusion between the two.^[12] Alongside the acquisition, Take-Two Interactive announced that the now-renamed Rockstar Toronto was working on a video game adaptation of the 1979 Walter Hill-directed film The Warriors.^[13][14] The eponymous game was first shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May 2005,^[15] and released in October that year.^[16][17] The game was well received,^[18][19] and a PlayStation Portable conversion of it was developed by Rockstar Toronto in conjunction with Rockstar Leeds.^[20] A spiritual successor to The Warriors, tentatively titled We Are the Mods, was originally planned, but cancelled.^[21][22]

Following the release of The Warriors, Rockstar Toronto returned to being mostly a porting house, though instead of PlayStation 2, the focus shifted to Wii, porting Manhunt 2 (2007)^{[23][24][25][26]} and Bully: Scholarship Edition (2008),^[27][28] and later to Microsoft Windows, porting Grand Theft Auto IV (2008, in association with Rockstar New England)^[29] and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (2010, comprising the two 2009-released Grand Theft Auto IV expoansions packs, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony). In September 2008, Rockstar Toronto was rumoured to be working on a third instalment in the Max Payne series.^[30][31][32] In November 2010, Rockstar Toronto teasted to be working on next-generation games.^[33] The company proceeded to collaborate with all other Rockstar Games subsidiaries, collectively referred to as Rockstar Studios, on Max Payne 3 (2012), and ported the game Microsoft Windows and macOS.^[34]

On 9 July 2012, two months after the release of Max Payne 3, Rockstar Games announced that Rockstar Toronto would be moving into a new, bigger, and custom-built studio within their Oakville, Ontario location, into which Rockstar Vancouver would be merged,^[35] effectively closing it and disbanding the "Rockstar Vancouver" name.^[36][37] All of Rockstar Vancouver's 35 employees at the time were given the posibility to move to the newly-expanded Rockstar Toronto, or any other Rockstar Games studio.^[38][39] The expansion and move was partially financed by the Government of Ontario.^[40][41] Jennifer Kolbe, vice-president of publishing and operations at Rockstar Games, stated that the move intended to make a single Canadian team that "will make for a powerful creative force on future projects",^[42][43] and aimed at making room for 50 new positions at the company.^[44][45] On 22 November 2012, the company was legally renamed from Rockstar Toronto Inc., over Rockstar Games Toronto Inc.,^[46] to Rockstar Games Toronto ULC, as such becoming an unlimited liability corporation under the laws of British Columbia.^[47]

By July 2013, job postings again started teasing next-generation development at Rockstar Toronto.^[48] The studio has most recently assisted Rockstar North on developing Grand Theft Auto V, which first released in September 2013, as well as handling its Microsoft Windows port, which released in April 2015.^[49] For the Microsoft Windows versions of Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto V, respectively, Rockstar Toronto developed a built-in video editor for footage captured in-game.^[50][51] Journalists remarked Grand Theft Auto V's Microsoft Windows version as its "ultimate version".^[52]