Rockstar Closes Vancouver Office

Some sad news was delivered about the closure of the Rockstar office in Vancouver, Canada, the team behind the well-received title “Max Payne 3.” Information being reported around the internet pointed to the closing of the facility. There is some confusion though, as to reasons behind the studio’s shutdown. Despite delays in development, “Max Payne 3” is still receiving press and positive reviews and has been hailed as one of the best games released this year. So why the closure? Is there a silver lining, a reason behind the madness?

The short answer is yes. With the dissolution of Rockstar Vancouver, Rockstar Toronto will be expanded into a sleeker, more efficient, and manpower dense machine (this includes the thirty-five man team from Vancouver who were all given relocation compensation. For what it’s worth, we really love to see a company that takes care of its own.) On top of a renovated office, 50 new positions will be added to the studio over the upcoming months, seemingly fortifying the branch’s existence within the company and opening the doors for new, big-budget games.

However, many people are having trouble accepting Rockstar Toronto as the chosen child for revamping. The studio hasn’t been involved in any major development since 2005, when their title “The Warriors” was released, but the same could be said for Vancouver, given that their last game was “Bully” in 2006. And while RockStar Toronto has dabbled in most of the company’s projects throughout the years, tweaking small aspects here and there, the success of the third Max Payne game trumps such involvement tenfold. This leaves the question of why Toronto was not absorbed by Vancouver instead, and most likely, that’s something we will probably never truly know.

Ideally, Rockstar has done the right thing by closing an entire location to nearly triple its manpower for their next title. If we keep our fingers crossed and hope, a lot, perhaps we might be seeing a new Max Payne or Bully title without the delays or development hiccups. Maybe this new super office will breath fresh life into gritty air of the gaming world. Only time will tell with this venture, but hypothetically, we have all the time in the world.

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Becca Gray also contributed to this article.