Rockstar Games Purchases Crackdown 2 Developer

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.

Studio head Gary Liddon and Creative Director Billy Thomson co-founded Ruffian Games in 2008, but both appear to have left the company in the wake of the acquisition, with filings pointing to the cessation of their position as directors at the studio and loss of significant control.

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.

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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.