Rockstar Games acquires LA Noire development studio as Rockstar Australia

Rockstar Games is expanding with its acquisition of ‘Video Games Deluxe’, a Sydney-based game development studio. Originally founded by ‘Brendan McNamara’, the studio will now operate as Rockstar Australia. Both studios have previously worked together which explains the acquisition.

“After working together closely over many years, we are excited to have Video Games Deluxe join the team as Rockstar Australia,” said Rockstar Games Head of Publishing, Jennifer Kolbe in the most recent press release announcing the acquisition. It’s hard to say why Rockstar made the decision, but maybe McNamara’s past work gave them some ideas.

Rockstar reunites with McNamara

McNamara was formerly Team Bondi, the studio behind L.A. Noire, which Rockstar Games published. The game was highly ambitious and received a lot of praise for its story, characters, and gameplay despite some technical difficulties. Team Bondi was originally expected to be the Rockstar Australia (or Sydney) at the time, but it did not happen.

“It’s been an honor to work closely with Rockstar Games this past decade. We are thrilled to be a part of Rockstar Games and to continue our efforts to make the best games possible,” said McNamara who will now lead Rockstar Australia.

Also Read: New GTA 6 rumors say Rockstar Games will drop trailer 2 by March end

Possible work on GTA 6 ahead of launch?

The use of Motion Capture across facial expressions wasn’t as popular when L.A. Noire entered development and was among the first games to try and introduce realistic expression. It worked well with the theme of the game and Rockstar may further expand upon it moving forward.

However, it is hard to see the team now working on GTA 6 with the release planned this year. That’s not to say the studio will not work on the game as seen with the GTA 5 release, Rockstar made a lot of post-launch changes which made the game different from than launch.