hi welcome to another ColdFusion video rockstar games have almost single-handedly revolutionized the world of gaming titles such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption sits in the hearts of many gamers but how did two brothers who worked at a music label and knew nothing about programming or game desire create one of the greatest video game publishing companies in history in this video we'll find out Grand Theft Auto was one of the first titles to start pushing the boundary of gaming there were games like Mortal Kombat and other graphically violent games available but Grand Theft
Auto was different it was realistic it had real-world scenarios with video game consequences on the other hand games like Mortal Kombat were set in science fiction and tailored mostly to gamers Rockstar wanted to make gaming for everyone they steered away from sci-fi and in the process made their games controversial even been banned in multiple countries and facing class-action lawsuits but the controversy only made their games more popular the Rockstar story starts with two brothers from London Sam and Dan Hauser the brothers have quite the Rockstar bringing which would later influence the DNA of their gaming
company their mother was a famous actress Geraldine Moffat she starred alongside Michael Caine in the movie Get Carter which pushed the edges of controversy with its crime sex and style their father was a musician who ran the most popular jazz club in England here the two brothers often hang out with famous jazz musicians during the genres peak in the 1980s Sam came across something that would change his life video games when he discovered them he fell in love with the concept of being able to transport him to another world later the brothers discovered something that
would change the perception of the world it was hip hop their love for rebellion and hate for civil order was exactly the outlet that hip hop provided them for his 18th birthday Sam's dad took him to New York where he bought leather jackets and Jordans he would roam the New York streets as if he was an East Coast rapper one day Sam having lunch with his father who was an executive from the record label BMG he asked his father why is everyone in the record business so old why don't he have young people working there
this question would actually land Sam a job at the record label it was also this brush attitude that led both Sam and his brother to be given the lead of a new gaming business that the record label had just purchased but didn't know what to do with from here they began pushing the boundaries of video games despite having no experience in the area in 1997 they would create a top-down driving and shooting game which would later become one of the greatest franchises in history they originally called a race and chase but settled on the name
grand theft order in 1998 BMG interactive was purchased by a company called take 2 this led sam dan and two other executives to move to new york and create a new subsidiary which they were call rockstar games the original 2d versions of GTA did well but it wasn't until the franchise went to 3d in GTA 3 that the Rockstar studio set themselves apart what made Rockstar unique at the time was the idea of giving gamers complete freewill if you wanted you could follow the storyline and do the mission or if you earn a more chaotic
mood you could roam the streets freely causing havoc the open-world is one of the most important aspects of the game yes it is violent but the freedom to do bad things take a joyride or get a burger is what makes their games great and this is what first drew me to the GTA series it was just so much fun to do whatever you wanted in a fictional world Rockstar was founded with a mission statement the video games for the next mass-market entertainment medium that they were uniquely interesting and powerful and that we as a company
would serve two masters to prove this fact combining the production values of movies with an obsession with gameplay above all else as rock star began pioneering the industry with its adult content they increasingly wanted to make video games that were cool and not just for geeks and gamers in 2002 with GTA vice sity that's exactly what they did draped in neon vice city was 1980s Miami here players could live out their own scarface story and still today is the 44th best selling game of all time paired with other success like Midnight Club Max Payne and
Red Dead the studio soon became an industry leader in the gaming world the brothers were truly rockstars the studio would keep pushing the edges of video games in terms of quality game design and storytelling but their games would soon bring controversy they became the main target for politicians during the impacts of video game violence on the youth this controversy ultimately made rockstar games even more popular people just wanted what others told them that they couldn't have in 2004 they would release grand theft auto san andreas the 21st best selling game of all time it features
gang warfare across a fictional combination of Los Angeles San Francisco and Las Vegas the map was an extensive open world where missions were optional allowing players to simply explore and do what they wanted almost everything was interactive and customizable the main character CJ even got fat or built muscle depending on your activity but Rockstar knew their limits and even cut out scenes when they thought it was too much one scene was an adult interaction which was cut out but not entirely removed from the game's code as untangling it would have taken too many resources once
the game hit PC people began modifying the code for cheats and different gameplay conditions soon the hidden scene was discovered and through a software patch made playable the scene dubbed hot coffee would result in numerous court cases against Rockstar for its content rating it was previously rated M but now had to be converted to adults only the recall of the game cost twenty five million dollars and the adults-only rating stopped the game from being stopped in the majority of stores as they refused to carry out all rated content one of the Rockstar brothers Sam Houser
would even be called to Capitol Hill for a hearing the case would be settled in 2009 and Rockstar refuses to ever discuss hot coffee ever again their bad-boy image fed their popularity this time however they needed to hit the brakes as the years pass from San Andreas people awaited rock stars next hyper-violent game so in 2006 they released table tennis no violence no story just a simple game to show off their new game engine but this didn't mean rockstar was done with their iconic style later that year Rockstar would release bully a game which pits
students against bullies most of the violent scenes for schoolyard fights their next game manhunt - was so violent that it received an adults-only rating and was effectively banned around the world this forced rockstar to tone it down in order to be able to actually sell the game though for rockstar they could afford some banning because GTA was their main cash cow and it was going well and soon the next GTA would again remind people what Rockstar could do GTA 4 was focused around New York's underbelly and there was another huge success it ranks 24th on
the best-selling games list of all time the Rockstar advance game engine or rage was a close source original game engine that allowed GTA 4 to be an HD the game cost an estimated 100 million dollars to produce and Rockstar left no stone unturned they even hired private investigators to track down lost musicians to purchase the rights to their songs but their biggest game was yet to come GTA 5 is still the best-selling game of all time pushing six billion dollars of revenue that's more than the top two highest-grossing Hollywood movies of all time compliant avatar
and Avengers endgame the first billion in sales came within the first three days it costs 250 million dollars to make with the downloadable content providing years of continuous online gameplay as you could imagine the game was no small feat it took a thousand pages of script 8 production studios and months of voice and motion-capture they talked to FBI agents experts in the Mafia and street gangs just to get the best possible experience for the player Rockstar had done it again the map was massive the graphics were unbelievable at the time and the story revolved around
three main characters which were interconnected and developed with the game's progression it was the culmination of all the great things from the previous GTA games in a new and exciting world and just recently Rockstar released Red Dead Redemption 2 - massive critical and public acclaim with a sprawling landscape an immersive story and outstanding graphics where sometimes he just had to stop playing and look around all of this had undoubtedly caused a lot of excitement for the next GTA game and seeing that GTA 5 was released nearly six years ago it surely can't be long now
during the release of Red Dead Redemption - dan Houser was quoted as being relieved that the release Red Dead Redemption - instead of GTA 6 because of the speed of current cultural shifts as the main writer for the GTA series Dan said he was unsure that they would ever do a GTA 6 with America being so polarized between the left and right he stated that the extremes of both sides were beyond parody and people would be angry with whatever they did he goes on to say that if the game was released today we'll be out
of date within two minutes this suggests that the new GTA would be set in a different time some rumors point to the return of the 1980s in a vice sity world regardless fans are excited and so am i however while there hasn't been an announcement for GTA 6 you can bet that rockstar is working on it it's claimed there's a new GTA will arrive on next generation gaming consoles due to the performance and size requirements GTA 6 is rumored to be the biggest GTA Rockstar have ever tried their hands at a company that's committed to
giving consumers complete freedom of choice has become something that's ever rarer as time passes but it's worked out for the house of brothers and their company Rockstar from their affluent but rebellious beginnings they've revolutionized gaming forever freedom combined with the best high-quality game design and immersive story Alliance fit for a Hollywood movie have made rockstar games second to none for the brothers it's just about perfecting a craft and making a good product dan Houser speaks quote our goal as a company isn't for people to say that rockstar has got a good game design but bad
stories or good stories and bad game design we want them to say Rockstar makes good games it's up to us to make the best stuff we can make it's not necessarily up to us to shout from the rooftops about how clever we are how progressive we are or how sophisticated we are it's our place to make stuff that's as good as it can be and I think that's an important lesson for everyone if you are in the business of making something do the best that you can so that wraps up our look at rockstar games
let me know what your favorite rockstar game is in the comments section below and what are you excited for in GTA 6 if you do want to see the actual origins of video games I've got a video that you can click on coming right up after this anyway this has been to gogo and you've been watching cold fusion thanks for watching and I'll catch you again soon for the next video cheers guys have a good one [Music]
