Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto

by David Kushner

  Unable to give 100 percent of himself anymore, Rompf chose not to come back. Assuming he'd be cut from GTA IV's credits, despite all of his work, as was Rockstar's way, he made one last call to the company—asking a friend to be the one who removed his name. “I wanted someone I love and trust to do it,” he later recalled. Eventually, Rompf got back on his feet, cleaned up, and took a job as the head of quality assurance at a major game publisher. Despite the ups and downs, however, he still had a deep-felt connection to Rockstar. “I kind of want back,” Rompf later said with a laugh.

  He wasn't the only Rockstar veteran with mixed feelings. Jamie King, who had launched his own company, 4mm Games with Rockstar cofounder Gary Foreman, suggested that perhaps nothing great could come without some degree of chaos. “We never believed in the easy way,” King said. “You don't create something amazing that's easy.” In the end, it was this obsession that raised the profile of games to the point they had recently reached. “Games are very cool now,” he said, “and now even in the movies if the character is a gamer, the guy gets laid!”

  Replicating the success of Rockstar, many realized, wasn't easy. Dave Jones, GTA's original creator, spent more than five years creating a multiplayer online urban action game, APB: All Points Bulletin, only to see it shut down following disappointing sales shortly after its release in July 2010. Fernandez and Pope, who had left Rockstar to launch their own start-up, Cashmere Games, met a similar fate when their company dissolved.

  Pope went on to make a very non-GTA game for self-help doctor Deepak Chopra. “It's taking everything that's amazing about games and doing something positive,” he said. “With video games you're either creating or destroying; with GTA we were definitely destroying.” Fernandez, a producer at another company, kept a quote of Sam's over his desk. “It says, you must always fight for greatness,” Fernandez said. “If you get complacent, you're dead. If you're not fighting for greatness, you're dead.”

  Rockstar still had plenty of fight. In May 2010, the company released Red Dead Redemption, its open world Western. The game arrived in a dust storm of notoriety. In addition to having come from the embattled Rockstar San Diego studio, it was at the heart of a controversy in Australia, where a game journalist was fired after posting an alleged e-mail from Rockstar seemingly pressuring him to give the title a positive review. “I did not sign up to become a journalist to write advertorials masquerading as editorial,” he said.

  Rockstar didn't need his help, though. With its sweeping sunsets and old world grit (and, yeah, horse-jacking), Red Dead Redemption was a critical and commercial hit. The game became 2010's fastest selling title, racking up more than eight million copies in sales and numerous awards. More than anything, it proved that Rockstar wasn't a one-trick pony. As players rabidly awaited GTA V, which would be set in Los Santos, the fictional Los Angeles from San Andreas, it seemed like anything in the future could come. “Until we've simulated the world outside,” producer Les Benzies said, “we're not going to stop.”3

  In the meantime, they had a little gift for their fans. It came on June 22, 2010, as a free bonus for buyers of Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar created a new pack of missions for the game, from raiding a mining camp to protecting a herd of cattle, but there was a twist. Instead of rustling on one's own, a gamer could team up online to play cooperatively with up to three others.

  Gangs had always been crucial to the guys at Rockstar, from their own gang of developers to the ones they simulated in their games. Now, all across the world, posses of players hopped on their horses and rode off into the sunset together. It was a fitting finale for the ones who seemed so outcast not long ago. Yet no matter what was on the horizon, they'd never forget from where they came. The name Rockstar gave to the Red Dead Redemption mission pack ensured this:

  Outlaws to the End.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to Connie Santisteban, ace editor (and gamer!) and everyone else at John Wiley & Sons, for seeing the potential of a book on GTA, and Jenny Heller, Craig Adams, and the rest at HarperCollins, for bringing this story to the UK where GTA began. Thanks to my agents, David McCormick of McCormick & Williams, and Matthew Snyder and Tiffany Ward of Creative Artists Agency.

  I'm grateful to those others who shepherded this along the way: Mary Ann Naples, Laura Nolan, Shari Smiley, and the many editors who have assigned video game stories to me over the years. A big shout-out to Chris Baker, my longtime editor at Wired, for reading and commenting on the manuscript. As always, thanks to my friends and family and, especially, my dad, who I wish could have read this book.

  Notes

  Portions of this book are drawn from articles of mine that appeared in publications including Rolling Stone, Salon, Wired, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and GamePro.

  I also drew from interviews I conducted over the years with people including: Dave Jones, Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Jamie King, Gary Foreman, Brian Baglow, Kevin Liles, Paul Eibeler, Jeremy Pope, Marc Fernandez, Gillian Telling, Aaron Garbut, Phil Harrison, Doug Lowenstein, Simon Harvey, David Nottingham, Corey Wade, David Walsh, Will Rompf, Gary Dale, Jack Thompson, Kirk Ewing, Bill Linn, Jeff Castanada, Colin MacDonald, Gary Penn, Lol Scragg, Mark Ette, Max Clifford, Mike Dailly, Navid Khonsari, Pat Vance, Patrick Wildenborg, Paul Farley, Todd Zuniga, Rodney Walker, Rob Fleischer, Corey Wade, Dan Hsu, Crispin Boyer, Scott Miller, Ian Hetherington, Strauss Zelnick, Leland Yee, Jerry and Mike of Penny Arcade, Luther Campbell, Warren Spector, Will Wright, Henry Jenkins, Wayne Buckner, Donna Buckner, Amanda Hetherington, Chris Carro, Michael Gartenberg, Michael Pachter, Craig Anderson, Doug Gentile, and others, some of whom wish to remain anonymous.

  Prologue: Players vs. Haters

  3 “creating tapestries” “The 2009 Time 100: Sam and Dan Houser,” Time, April 30, 2009, www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1894410_1893836_1894428,00.html.

  3 “a hit machine” “Rockstar Execs Keep Low Profile: Videogame Company Creates Its Own Rockstars,” Variety, April 18, 2008.

  3 “one of the leading lights” “Studio Is Prize in Takeover Duel: Intense ‘Grand Theft' Creator Wows Gamers—and Electronic Arts,” Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2008, A1.

  3 “the kids” Ibid.

  3 “We are going to destroy” “Florida Attorney on Manhunt for Rockstar, Jack Thompson Seeks to ‘Destroy' Take-Two Label,” Posted July 30, 2004, GameDaily, http://biz.gamedaily.com/features_new/jack_thompson/.

  4 “The concept of a glorified shop” United States District Court Southern District of New York in Re Take-Two Interactive Securities Litigation, Consolidated Third Amended Class Action Complaint for Violations of Federal Securities Laws, Exhibit B-3, Filed 9/15/08.

  1. The Outlaw

  6 “A bank robber” “Studio Is Prize in Takeover Duel: Intense ‘Grand Theft ' Creator Wows Gamers—and Electronic Arts,” Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2008, A1.

  7 Sam's broken hand Harold Goldberg, All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2011), 216.

  9 “running the track” Stacy Gueraseva, Def Jam, Inc.: Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin, and the Extraordinary Story of the World's Most Influential Hip Hop Label (New York: One World Ballantine, 2005), 17.

  10 “Why is everyone” “Sam Houser: The First Global Superstar of Gaming,” Independent, July 10, 2000, www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/sam-houser-the-first-global-superstar-of-gaming-694096.html.

  2. The Warriors

  12 “lit the fuse” Jack Thompson, Out of Harm's Way (IL: Carol Stream, 2005), 116.

  13 “God's people” Ibid.

  14 “Time Warner is” Ibid., 117.

  15 “I got my first” “At Your Leisure, Sam Houser, Video Game Designer,” Express, October 23, 1999.

  15 “the recording industry's” “David and Goliath Are Interacting, Bertelsmann and Upstart Plan Music Label for CD-ROMs,” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 1993, 1.

  16 “Because they are” D
avid Kushner, discussion of Lieberman hearings, Masters of Doom (New York: Random House, 2003), 154–158.

  17 “dangerous, violent” “You Can Run but You Can't Hide,” Scotsman, March 19, 1994.

  3. Race 'n' Chase

  24 “To say that” “Have a Blast with the Lads from ‘Lemmings,'” Scotsman, December 20, 1996, 17.

  24 “We think David Jones” “Turning a Redundancy Cheque into Millions,” Scotsman, May 4, 1994.

  26 an estimated £3.4 million pounds “Games Firm in £1.5m Legal Action,” Herald (Glasgow), July 30, 1997, 4.

  26 “They will treat computer companies” “That's Quite Some Game, Boy,” Herald (Glasgow), May 20, 1995, 31.

  4. Gouranga!

  28 five hundred thousand machines “Sony Plays for Millions in Games Gamble,” Guardian, March 19, 1995, 5.

  28 “our biggest launch since the Walkman” “Sega, Sony Battle New Systems Vie for Players,” Cincinnati Post, June 20, 1995, 6C.

  31 “Once we made you able to kill” “Get Your Game On,” Raygun, Summer 1999.

  32 “If the game isn't coming together properly” Harold Goldberg, All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2011), 219.

  5. Eating the Hamster

  38 “a master manipulator” “Driving Publicity to the Max,” Scotsman, December 3, 1997, 3.

  41 “I do understand” “Minister Condemns Car Crime Computer Game,” Parliamentary News, May 20, 1997.

  41 “We simply cannot allow children” “Car-Theft Computer Game Accused of Glamorising Violent Crime,” Scotland on Sunday, July 20, 1997, 6.

  42 “It is deplorable” “Criminal Computer Game That Glorifies Hit and Run Thugs,” Daily Mail, November 24, 1997, 20.

  42 “This game is sick” “Ban Criminal Video Game,” News of the World, November 23, 1997, 21.

  42 “The BBFC” “DMA's Joy-Rider Game in Dock,” Scotland on Sunday, November 23, 1997, 1.

  42 “Sick car game boss” “Sick Car Game Boss Was Banned from Driving,” News of the World, December 21, 1997, 21.

  43 “the computer genius” “Criminal Computer Game That Glorifies Hit and Run Thugs,” Daily Mail, November 24, 1997, 20.

  43 “It is quite a shock” “Big Game Hunter,” Sunday Times, October 31, 2004, 1.

  43 “We are being moral” “Car-Theft Computer Game Accused of Glamorising Violent Crime,” Scotland on Sunday, July 20, 1997, 6.

  44 “People assume that computer games” Ibid.

  45 “Though not up to moral standards” http://web.archive.org/web/20030105021602/www.gemonthly.com/reviews/gta/index.htm, accessed July 28, 2011.

  45 “GTA is a gas,” www.allgame.com/game.php?id=9363&tab=review, accessed July 28, 2011.

  6. Liberty City

  48 “I want to create” “Game Boy,” Forbes, May 20, 1996, 276.

  48 “We're going to get killed” “Fatherly Advice on Facts of Financial Life,” Crain's New York Business, October 12, 1998, 34.

  49 “My first drug experience” “Drugs, Juggs, and Speed,” Spin, July 1999, 70.

  50 GTA madness had even spread to Brazil “Brazil Bans Sale of ‘Dangerous' Computer Game,” Reuters, March 1, 1998.

  50 “A top-selling Scots computer game” “Game Cheats,” Sunday Mail, March 22, 1998.

  50 “one of the most original” “The Complete History of Grand Theft Auto,” Games-Radar, http://a3.gamesradar.com/f/the-complete-history-of-grand-theft-auto/a-2008042314506193050, accessed July 29, 2011.

  51 “The game's gleeful embrace” “Grand Theft Auto for DOS,” MobyGames, www.mobygames.com/game/grand-theft-auto/mobyrank, accessed July 28, 2011.

  51 “It won't win any awards” “Grand Theft Auto Reviews,” GameSpot, www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/grandtheftauto/review.html, accessed July 28, 2011.

  51 “shock-schlock game” “Grand Theft Auto for DOS,” MobyGames, www.mobygames.com/game/grand-theft-auto/mobyrank, accessed July 28, 2011.

  7. Gang Warfare

  55 “Respect-O-Meter” Grand Theft Auto 2, Manual, 7, Rockstar Games, 1999.

  55 “the Rockstar brand will finally deliver” “Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Subsidiary Rockstar Games Announces Highly Anticipated 1999 and 2000 Video Game Lineup,” Business Editors, Business Wire, February 23, 1999, 1.

  57 “What the fuck” Harold Goldberg, All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2011), 220.

  59 “London in the sixties” “Gathering of Developers Urges Drivers to Get on the Wrong Side of the Road with Grand Theft Auto: London 1969,” Business and Entertainment Editors, March 15, 1999, 1.

  59 “We're about doing games” “Drugs, Juggs, and Speed,” Spin, July 1999, 70.

  8. Steal This Game

  65 “Three weeks into the future” GTA2 Manual, 2.

  67 “A game player” Steven Kent, The First Quarter (Bothell: BWD Press, 2000), 440.

  67 “Video games don't teach people to hate” “A Room Full of Doom,” Time, May 24, 1999, 65.

  67 “The Grand Theft Auto franchise has proven” “Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Announces That Its Grand Theft Auto Franchise Is Topping European Charts,” Business Editors, Business Wire, May 19, 1999, 1.

  70 “chess-like 2D graphics” “Familiar Car Theme Given Better Twist,” Southland Times, August 20, 1999, 13.

  70 “This is a cultural product” “Dan Houser's Very Extended Interview about Everything Grand Theft Auto IV and Rockstar,” Variety, April 19, 2008.

  72 “a computerized version” “Cyber City Virtually a Whole New Way of Life,” Scotland on Sunday, September 12, 1999, B8.

  72 “Oh, man, if we do this in proper 3D” “Grand Theft Auto: The Inside Story,” Edge, March 17, 2008.

  9. Rockstar Loft

  74 “Some of your” Grand Theft Auto III, Manual, Rockstar Games, 2001, 10.

  76 “ This is the game business” “Get Your Game On,” Raygun, Summer 1999.

  76 “As far as I can ascertain” “Organisers of the Grand Theft Auto 2 Video Game Launch Reacted with Some Shock to Freddie Foreman's Dramatic Snub for Their Party Yesterday,” Sun, October 20, 1999, 6.

  76 Take-Two announced it would be shipping “Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.'s Rockstar Games Division Begins Global Shipment of GTA2,” Business, High Tech and Entertainment Editor, October 21, 1999, 1.

  78 “That was a humbler” Harold Goldberg, All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2011), 228.

  79 “Everyone working on the project” “Grand Theft Auto: The Inside Story,” Edge, March 17, 2008.

  10. The Worst Place in America

  80 “Oh, my God” “Rockstar Envisions the Future: President Sam Houser Discusses the Upcoming Next-Gen Wars, PS2 Duke Nukem, GTA, and Austin Powers,” IGN, November 1, 2000, http://ps2.ign.com/articles/087/087203p1.html, accessed July 28, 2011.

  82 “to make the first interactive” “Rockstar's Sam Houser Mouths Off,” IGN, September 10, 2001.

  88 “To me, as a film nut” Ibid.

  11. State of Emergency

  89 “Liberty City is” GTA III Manual, 7.

  92 “We're trying to do everything” “Senators Vow Legislation to Curb Sale of Violent Games,” Newsbytes, January 25, 2001.

  92 “If I'm entrusted with the presidency” “The 2000 Campaign: The Vice President; Gore Takes Tough Stand on Violent Entertainment,” New York Times, September 11, 2000, www.nytimes.com/2000/09/11/us/2000-campaign-vice-president-gore-takes-tough-stand-violent-entertainment.html?pagewanted=2, accessed July 28, 2011.

  94 “A spokesman for Rockstar” “Video Gamers Can Experience WTO All Over Again PLAYSTATION 2: ‘State of Emergency' Offers a Virtual Urban Riot over Actions of the ‘American Trade Organization,” News Tribune, May 28, 2001, A1.

  94 “Thanks to Rockstar Games” “Nothing Beats a Relaxing Riot,” Herald Sun, June
1, 2001, 34.

  96 “I think the video game industry” “Why Rockstar Games Rule,” Wired, July 2002.

  97 “we'd better put the fucking hammer down” “Grand Theft Auto: The Inside Story,” Edge, March 17, 2008.