Rockstar Games forms Rockstar Australia with long-time collaborator

Rockstar Games has added a 13th group to its worldwide support studio ahead of Grand Theft Auto 6's expected Fall 2025 release.

2

Today, Rockstar Games announced that it has acquired Video Games Deluxe, a long-time collaborator that has assisted development on a number of projects. The Pyrmont, Sydney-based studio will now become Rockstar Australia, and the 13th company in a regional webwork that spans everywhere from India to Toronto.

Rockstar Australia could end up being a smaller team, at least at the start: LinkedIn estimates that Video Game Deluxe has 2-10 employees. The studio had previously worked alongside Rockstar on games like the LA Noire VR release and even helped optimize the new GTA trilogy for mobiles and consoles--the latter of which received some hefty visual tweaks and improvements.

There were previous reports that VGD had been developing an open-world VR game for Rockstar Games, but it's unclear where this project could be in Take-Two Interactive's slate of games, if the project hasn't been cancelled entirely. It's hard to say what project Rockstar Australia will end up working on but GTA 6 should take priority above all else right now.

"Rockstar Games is proud to announce the acquisition of Video Games Deluxe, the Sydney-based development studio. The studio will be renamed Rockstar Australia. Video Games Deluxe has worked with Rockstar Games on some of its most memorable titles, including the 2017 re-releases of L.A. Noire, L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files, and most recently, on upgrades to Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition for iOS and Android, Netflix, and modern consoles."