Rockstar Games appears to have purchased Crackdown 2 developer Ruffian Games, taking the studio under its wing and rebranding it as Rockstar Dundee. The news arrives thanks to a report from The Gamer, which noted a series of Companies House listings confirming the acquisition and name change.
The page for Rockstar Dundee lists 10 major filings all on October 6, 2020, which include the name change, a change of registered address, Take-Two Interactive Software assuming significant control of the company, and a series of new employees being confirmed as directors of the studio.
A tweet from the official Ruffian Games account posted back in October 2019 noted that they were working on “unspecified titles for @RockstarGames”.
That points to Ruffian Games having been working with Rockstar for at least a year before being officially absorbed into the publisher.
Whatever this transformation into Rockstar Dundee means is anyone’s guess, but they join a cavalcade of studios working on future games for Rockstar.
As well as Crackdown 2, Ruffian had previously worked on Kinect Star Wars, Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Crackdown 3. There is no official word from Rockstar as to what the Dundee branch’s responsibilities will entail.
Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.