Rockstar Vancouver Inc. (formerly Barking Dog Studios Ltd.) was a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Vancouver. It was founded as Barking Dog Studios in May 1998, by six developers formerly of Radical Entertainment. The company developed Homeworld: Cataclysm (2000), a stand-alone expansion for Homeworld, Global Operations (2002), a tactical first-person shooter, and Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon (2002), a real-time strategy game based on the Treasure Planet film.
In August 2002, Barking Dog Studios was acquire by Take-Two Interactive Software and became part of Rockstar Games as Rockstar Vancouver. Under its new title, the company went on to develop Bully (2006), and lead development on Max Payne 3 (2012) - both of which were critically acclaimed. The studio was closed on July 9, 2012 as part of a merger with sister studio Rockstar Toronto, which would receive new, larger offices.
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)