Rockstar Vancouver

Rockstar Vancouver was a video game studio located in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. Rockstar Vancouver released Bully, a controversial title exclusively for the PlayStation 2 on October 17, 2006. Rockstar Vancouver employs 75 people and develops action titles exclusively for Rockstar Games.

Its final title was Max Payne 3, the sequel to Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.

The studio closed in mid 2012 after being merged with Rockstar Games Toronto.

History
Barking Dog Studios founded in May 1998 by Brian Thalken and several former employees of Radical Entertainment. Barking Dog, with publishing assistance by Sierra Studios, moved on to produce a sequel to the 1999 PC Magazine Game of the Year Homeworld entitled Homeworld: Cataclysm. Homeworld had been developed by Relic Entertainment but Sierra chose instead to use Barking Dog to develop the game.

Barking Dog was also retained by Valve Software to develop the Beta-5 version beta of the popular first-person shooter Counter-Strike. Their legacy can be seen on the Counter-Strike map de_train where their cartoon dog logo can be seen on the side of a railcar.

Barking Dog also produced other games such as Global Operations, and Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon. They were acquired by Rockstar Games in August 2002, and became known as Rockstar Vancouver.

Many Barking Dog employees later split off to form their own companies, such as Slant Six Games, Hellbent Games, Kerberos Productions and Ironclad Games.

In late 2011, Rockstar Games confirmed Vancouver would be closing. The company officially closed in Summer 2012. This was met with very negative reaction from fans of Bully, who said this may of squashed their chances of a long awaited sequel. However later, Dan Houser stated the game is still a possiblity regardless of the studios closure.

Games
as Barking Dog Studios
 * Homeworld: Cataclysm (2000) (PC)
 * Counter-Strike (2000) (PC) (Various maps) (with Valve Software)
 * Global Operations (2002) (PC)
 * Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon (2002) (PC)

as Rockstar Vancouver
 * Bully (video game) (2006) (PlayStation 2)
 * Bully: Scholarship Edition (2008) (Xbox 360, PC, Wii) (with Rockstar New England and Rockstar Toronto)
 * Max Payne 3 (2011) (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)