Rockstar Games, Inc., the American video game publisher behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, has been headquartered in New York City since its founding in December 1998. The New York headquarters — sometimes referred to as "Rockstar New York," "Rockstar NY," or "Rockstar NYC" to distinguish it from the company's network of global subsidiary studios — functions as the central command of a multi-studio creative organization that, as of 2018, employed more than 2,000 people worldwide. The NYC office is the seat of company president and co-founder Sam Houser, the principal creative driving force behind Grand Theft Auto, and it houses the executive, publishing, marketing, and communications functions that coordinate development across studios in Edinburgh, San Diego, Dundee, Toronto, Leeds, London, Lincoln, Bengaluru, Andover (Massachusetts), Carlsbad (California), and, since 2025, Sydney. For Grand Theft Auto VI, all strategic, executive, and publishing decisions flow through this New York hub.
Rockstar Games was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using assets Take-Two had acquired from BMG Interactive earlier that year. Following Take-Two's acquisition of BMG Interactive (announced March 12, 1998 and closed March 25, 1998), three BMG Interactive executives — Dan Houser, Sam Houser, and Jamie King — together with Gary Foreman (BMG Interactive) and Terry Donovan (BMG Entertainment's Arista Records) relocated from London to New York City to work for Take-Two. In an April 1998 restructuring, Sam Houser was appointed Take-Two's "vice president of worldwide product development," and by December 1998 the group had formed Rockstar Games as the "high-end" publishing label of Take-Two; the formation was formally announced on January 22, 1999.
The choice of New York was deliberate. Take-Two Interactive was already based in Manhattan, and the founders sought a base in a global media capital rather than a traditional games-industry cluster. The NYC HQ has since served as Rockstar's brand center, publishing arm, and creative nucleus — the place where overall game direction, narrative tone, marketing, music licensing, and PR strategy are set, even when the bulk of engineering occurs at Rockstar North in Edinburgh or at the various other studios.
Sam Houser — born November 1971 in London and educated at St Paul's School, the University of London, and the University of Cambridge — moved to New York City in 1998 and has been based there ever since, acquiring U.S. citizenship in 2007. He resides in the Brooklyn borough of New York City and works out of the Rockstar NYC headquarters as the company's president. Houser has produced every major Grand Theft Auto entry since Grand Theft Auto III (2001), including Vice City, San Andreas, GTA IV, GTA V, and Red Dead Redemption 2, and his executive producer credit on Grand Theft Auto VI makes the New York HQ the de facto creative command center for the project. Houser was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 2014, and in 2009 he and brother Dan were named to Time magazine's 100 most influential people list.
Key executives based out of or reporting into the New York HQ include:
Earlier leadership stationed in NYC included co-founders Terry Donovan (managing director until January 2007), Jamie King, and Dan Houser (Vice President of Creative until his departure on March 11, 2020, after an extended break following Red Dead Redemption 2). Vice president of writing Michael Unsworth departed in 2023 after sixteen years. The NYC HQ also collaborates with Rockstar's motion-capture studio in Bethpage, New York (Long Island), used heavily for Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA VI.
Although Grand Theft Auto VI is being developed primarily at Rockstar North (Edinburgh) with contributions from nearly every Rockstar studio under the "Rockstar Studios" collective credit, the New York HQ remains the seat of authority. Publishing decisions, marketing campaigns (including the December 2023 reveal trailer), launch timing, parent-company coordination with Take-Two Interactive (also NYC-based), and Sam Houser's final creative sign-off all originate in New York City. This concentration of executive authority in a single Manhattan office is a distinguishing feature of Rockstar relative to other AAA publishers, and it explains why industry coverage often treats statements from "Rockstar New York" as definitive corporate position.
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Kushner, D. (2012) Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
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Wikipedia (2026a) Rockstar Games. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_Games (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia (2026b) Sam Houser. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Houser (Accessed: 14 May 2026).