Rockstar has bought local folks Video Games Deluxe, now Rockstar Australia
Rockstar have had quite the relationship with Australia, not counting their pretty incredible PR team (I might be biased there), but they dipped their toes in to our water years ago via a partnership with Team Bondi.
While LA Noire was a good game, there was a lot of behind the scenes chaos that lead to that studios closure and while Rockstar would leave game development in Australia behind for a while, it seems they could not be turned away completely.
Many of the Team Bondi folks reformed as Video Games Deluxe, a unique studio name to be sure and their first big project was making the VR version of LA Noire, simply called L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files. That proved to be quite the success and the team were tasked a few years later of taking the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition from consoles to mobile for Netflix Games, to which they got immense praise.
In 2024 the studio popped their heads up again as they were found to be the ones responsible for updating the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition from its original console and PC releases, to the better mobile versions. You can see the updates on the Switch version here.
Now the journey from publisher to part of the team is complete, as Video Games Deluxe becomes Rockstar Australia.
“After working together closely over many years, we are excited to have Video Games Deluxe join the team as Rockstar Australia”
“It’s been an honour 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.”
Now there is no word on what the studio will be doing for Rockstar, the group is almost all in on Grand Theft Auto VI and those that are not, are working on GTA Online content. Given the now Rockstar Australia’s success in updating the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, I could see them being given more of a support role like the Lincoln and Bangalore studios, but with their creative success, they could also be tasked with creating all-new content for GTA Online.
For now we will just have to wait and see what the studio is up to, and of course, a release date for GTA VI from Rockstar themselves.
