Rockstar Buys Crackdown 2 Developer

Rockstar, like Blizzard, is one of the most successful video game studios out there because it understands that you can make millions with one really good game, rather than making millions of only so-so titles. So far, they've been pretty happy investing their earnings back into the games that have been making them so much money, but it's just been announced that they're going to take some of their millions and treat themselves to another brand-new studio, because gosh darn it they've earned it.

And the studio they decided to buy out? Ruffian Games.

If that name doesn't ring a bell, it's because Ruffian Games doesn't have much of a presence in the gaming world. They developed Crackdown 2 and an Xbox 360 title called Kinect Playfit, but have otherwise kept the lights on by contributing manpower and talent to other developers, by helping with the production of games like Crackdown 3, The Master Chef Collection, and Kinect Star Wars. So not exactly an impressive resume, but managing to survive over ten years in the video game industry on one and a half final games is nothing to scoff at.

Anyway, with this purchase, Rockstar has redubbed them "Rockstar Dundee" and presumably put them to work, although on what, we haven't the faintest. It seems unlikely they'd be put in charge of any new games -- if I had to guess, they're probably going to be put in charge of keeping older Rockstar games updated and running while the main team transitions to newer, more demanding projects.

That's all speculation, of course, and it's almost certainly going to stay that way since both studios seem pretty quiet about the announcement. But for the folks at Rockstar Dundee (at least the people who aren't let go), it's probably going to be a relief to have more consistent work.