Rockstar Games has announced that it will close its Vancouver studio and relocate Rockstar Toronto to a new, bigger office in Oakville, Ontario. The Canadian government has pledged to provide tax incentives and financial support to help facilitate the move. The 35 affected staff at Rockstar Vancouver are being offered the opportunity to transfer to the Toronto studio or join one of Rockstar’s teams in other parts of the world.

Rockstar Vancouver was responsible for Max Payne 3 and Bully while Rockstar Toronto developed The Warriors and worked on numerous ports including the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Jennifer Kolbe, VP of publishing and operations at Rockstar, explained the demise of Rockstar Vancouver as follows:

“Expanding Rockstar Toronto and bringing our Canadian development talent together under one roof underscores our commitment to building world-class teams that can make the kind of groundbreaking entertainment experiences Rockstar Games is known for.

“We believe a single Canadian team will make for a powerful creative force on future projects. We plan to add more than 50 new positions to our combined Canadian team, and are pleased to be entering into this strategic partnership with the Ontario government.”

Source: Eurogamer

Tags: canada, newstudio, rockstargames, rockstartoronto, rockstarvancouver