r/rockstar • u/jonessevereignity • 3d ago
Discussion Did Rockstar Games change the game industry forever and revolutionize it?
If yes, why?
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u/sunnyazee 3d ago
I would say YES. After playing their game everything seems “Low Quality”. Good story, graphics, game mechanics, innovation everything is there.
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u/Timely_Specific4004 3d ago
That me after playing rdr2. I would stop playing for few days or a week so I don’t get a unrealistic expectation for other games to be like rockstar game
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u/Flw21 3d ago
I replayed it this year and there’s no game that has really given me that feeling after. I had just forgotten the masterpiece that the game is.
I tried to replay Witcher 3 right after, and it didn’t give me the same feeling so I dropped it. I think the only game that’s going to get me close to it might be GTA 6 and it’s not coming soon enough
Arthur is honestly the best protagonist on a video game for me. No one even comes close
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u/Abject-Emu2023 3d ago
If you have PS5, Ghosts of Tsushima was a really good game in my opinion and with the same beauty as RDR
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u/Thefunson 3d ago
For real as an open world game lover who moved to pc around the time rdr2 came out, I was pretty dissapointed to find out not all games were like that
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u/TheNRG450 3d ago
Yes, they are responsible for transforming the Open World games every time. And while other companies are up there as well historically, Rockstar still hasn't disappointed with the games they develop (no, I don't count the DE Trilogy)
I can say that, indirectly, Rockstar destroyed Ubisoft's formula of sandboxes when RDR2 was released, and even when GTA V arrived at last-gen consoles when they responded to Watch Dogs. There's a reason why it was reported that many companies are scared of realising their games in the 2025 fiscal year, with GTA VI (so far) just around the corner.
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u/reddituseraccount24 3d ago
Yes, from the mechanics to graphics and storylines. A perfect example is Red Dead Redemption 2, now whenever I play a new game I’m instantly put off because it’s not as good as rdr2 whether it be graphically, or the mechanics being stiff or controls not making sense but also the story could never compare. As a solo game dev myself, I can only dream of creating something even fractionally as good. I love 90% of rockstar games but rdr2 imo will always be the pinnacle. Ubisoft etc should follow rockstar’s lead
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u/Liquid-Lad 3d ago
I love RDR2 for so many reasons, but I have new thoughts of the story, going from amazing to good after a few playthroughs . RDR1s story was perfect, Max Payne 3 was even greater. I’m gonna miss Dan Houser, but I’m looking forward to his new media publishing company.
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u/iWasAwesome 3d ago edited 3d ago
In 2007, GamePro called GTA 3 the most important video game of all time, saying
When Grand Theft Auto III landed in October of 2001, it instantaneously dated every game that came before it.
Simply put, GTAIII redefined how games are played, serving as a wake-up call to an industry that had had for years fallen into a safe, sleepy rhythm.
After GTA III, everything from Tony Hawk to fighting games, shooters and even the Simpsons franchise went back to the drawing board. No other game in the last 20 years has had more impact than Grand Theft Auto III. It radically evolved the bond between gamer and game, in the process changing everything about how games are made and played.
So I would say yes. And while maybe not quite as impactful these days, I would argue that every GTA and Red Dead game since then has been revolutionary in one way or another.
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u/NewTrack9791 3d ago
Yes and they also revolutionized milking the shit out of multiplayer. I don’t think Rockstar will ever go back to how it was. Obviously GTA 6 will be a hit but you know they’re gonna go right back to online after the GTA 6 hype dies down.
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u/Abject_Tap_7903 3d ago
LMAO Revolutionize? No. They probably made gaming unique with their GTA and Red Dead franchises.
If ANYONE revolutionized anything, it's gotta be Valve with their Half Life series.
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u/Gunbladelad 3d ago
They certainly didn't do anything "new" as such - but they packaged it in such a way that the changes in them became mainstream.
Open world games with mission structures, for example, have been about from the earliest days of text adventures (known today as "Interactive fiction") - and open world 3D games have been around since the days of Elite - a 3D space shooter (which actually had scripted missions and 65,000 systems to trade and fight in).
Even in regards to stuff like Bully - it wasn't the first free-roam game based in a school environment - we had "Skool Daze" and "Back to Skool" away back in the 1980s on pretty much every single 8-bit home computer of the time.
Did they bring certain game techniques to the masses? Yes. Did they innovate those techniques? No. Everything done in a Rockstar game can be traced back to older titles.
Yes, I do expect quite a lot of downvotes for this - but when you've witnessed videogaming all the way from the 1970s you get to recognise where things came from.
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u/DannyHallam 3d ago
Rockstar are the hallmark for an S tier game, in fact I think they should have their own category
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u/UntouchableC 3d ago
I'm not saying everyone in here is wrong, I would just like to hear HOW rockstar changed the industry. They make exceptional games, no question. But I would argue that there was some influence around the GTA3 era, with every other game being open world and crime ridden. After that Rockstar kind of moved into a league of their own with only one or two games with the balls or idiocy to try to create open world story driven games like Rockstar.
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u/teri_mummy_ka_ladla 3d ago
Yes, doesn't matter how many open world action games/crime simulators I play, GTA is the one I always like and leave the others halfway lol, and not just GTA even RDR, Bully, I don't get these vibes for other "similar" games.
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u/aphidman 3d ago
I mean they started the proliferation and trend of large Open World games for a while. They didn't invent open world but Vice City and San Andreas had a huge impact in gaming in the 2000s.
Later Rockstar games I think pushed the idea that Open World games also had to be graphically impressive. Their earlier titles looked shitty compared to contemporary games -- but you accepted that since the freedom of the Open World was so good. But now it seems Open World games are expected to also look amazing.
I had GTA4, and Red Dead 1, probably had some influence on serious and cinematic storytelling in English Language games (games like the Yakuza series in Japan were ahead of companies like Rockstar on this front).
These days I think it's probably the huge success of GTAV's Online and MTXs probably have a huge affect of Pubslishers and Businesses trying to replicate some of its success.
But I'd say most of their influence was in the 2000s.
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u/Seth_KT_Bones2005 3d ago
Of course.
The way Rockstar writes their villains is peak kino. Manhunt raised my standards for villains. Name me the most bloodthirsty villain, and I'll tell you who Lionel Starkweather, or Leo Kasper took to villain school. Show me a badass, and I'll show you who CJ, Niko Bellic, Claude, or James Earl Cash took to freaking badass school.
And don't get me started with voice actor casting. How they make almost all characters sound authentic is beyond me, bro. Mind blowing. Characters don't sound like anime dub characters. They sound real.
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u/BascinetBreaker 3d ago
Yes 100%
Love them or hate them, Rockstar puts out quality that typically far surpasses anything on the market.
Take Red Dead Redemption 2 for example, the amount of detail down to the smallest stuff is just crazy. Few companies even come close to this level.
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u/Anorak27s 3d ago
They changed it twice, first they revolutionised it and then they destroyed it with all the shitty only gaming, they went from releasing few games every year to releasing games every 7 or 8 years because they can't stop focusing on the online bullshit.
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u/j20Taylor 3d ago
Yes. It’s to the point where I don’t even know if another game in the next 20 years will surpass red dead 2.
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u/Ragipi12 3d ago
Yes they did, especially the Open-world genre of games. GTA is quite honestly the biggest franchise in the world not just for videogames but entertainment as a whole.
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u/darealarusham 3d ago
I'd say yeah. And they're still on top if you ask me.
I've been playing through Watch Dogs 2 and i don't understand how people say it's better than GTA 5. The driving is crap, shooting isn't anything special and the only thing going for it for me is that running from the cops with the hacker stuff is pretty fun and the map is nice. People will easily say any similar game is better than GTA but fail to overlook what GTA does best. Guess they just love being contrarians.
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u/iambeingblair 3d ago
Yes, with GTA 3 and Vice City. Everything after those have been iterations on those. Bigger, more side activities, higher fidelity graphics. I think they are stuck in a rut and have been for a long time, but have little reason to do anything differently because they are guaranteed to make money with every game.
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u/A_ma4g3 3d ago
I’ll play devils advocate to make it more interesting and suggest that it hasn’t as much as people say. The world building is very very good but games like Skyrim which are over a decade old are just as good, if not better, at this. Furthermore whilst RDR2 has an amazing story itself and many other R* missions are very formulaic and hand holdy to the point where it’s borderline insulting our intelligence.
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u/Cata_clysmm 3d ago
Sure, Now its Modder, or using mods not cheating. RS will never ever sell me another game!
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u/Juicey_J_Hammerman 3d ago
I don’t know if it’s revolutionary per se, but I think they serve as the optimal example for what happens when you get a large studio with a lot of resources behind it putting a huge emphasis on story, polish, and overall quality —— essentially setting a bar so high it feels revolutionary.
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u/siderhater4 3d ago
They charge it and they releasing games and their most recent game was red dead redemption II
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u/ZygothamDarkKnight 3d ago
I'd say so. Since GTA 3 is a revolution to open world game. And many people consider RDR2 as the best game.
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u/The_Chef_Queen 3d ago
No also i’m sick of people claiming they made max payne they just own it now but remedy are the ones who made it
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u/Select-Librarian-646 3d ago
For the sake of popularity for a contrarian opinion, I kinda wanna say, 'No'?
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u/besourosuco3 3d ago
Rockstar made the definitive game, I think it's very difficult for anything to beat RDD2
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u/CommunicationSad2869 3d ago
Rockstar revolutionized the open world genre thanks to Grand Theft Auto, revolutionizing the Western genre in RDR games.
I'm not talking about max payne because they are not the original creators of max payne and rockstar I only create MP3, although Remedy the original parents of max payne revolutionized third person shooting games thanks to the narrative and bullet time, rockstar has nothing that see with this
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u/One-Advantage-677 3d ago
I’d argue only GTA 3 did that really. GTA 3 set the blueprint for open world games to come, at least those that aren’t RPGs.
Beyond that they didn’t really revolutionize much. People will claim they did but 9/10 it’s just Rockstar did something other games did before.
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u/Curious4MoreInfo 3d ago
I love Rockstar! Thank you for GTA, Red Dead Revolver, Red Dead Redemption, Bully: Scholarship Edition, and so many more!
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u/TheNightman195 3d ago
No, otherwise we'd be playing new IPs or sequels instead of just the same two we always get
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u/shawner136 2d ago
GTA 3 created the mold for open world games that the entire industry would end up following to some extent shortly there after
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u/whitekidjam 2d ago
Yes. And it’s not just the engineering quality- they’re typically great head to toe.
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u/Axozombie 2d ago
Making outstanding games? Yes. Revolutionized something? Nah. You could maybe say with GTA 3 doing the free roaming 3D open world city kind game. But even that existed before, GTA 3 just made it popular.
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u/SuperLuigi128 3d ago
Sorta? They certainly helped make these more mature games popular (for better and for worse) and likely set the standard for open world games set in contemporary times and period pieces. Mario revolutionized things, GTA 3 impacted things.
Cause with how I view revolutionized, it means changing the landscape forever. Which I can't really say it fully did. And none of the GTA games afterwards ever hit the same industry changing impact that can be argued for 3. It's why I doubt the whole talk of 6 revolutionizing things again.
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u/SquishyPenguin46 3d ago
i wouldn’t say so. their games are incredible don’t get me wrong and they have amazing stories and great attention to detail but that’s not really groundbreaking… i could name a lot of games with an amazing and good attention to detail. sure their games inspire a lot of ppl but from a gameplay standpoint they haven’t really brought anything new and innovative idea wise imo. ik the rage engine that they’ve developed and continue to develop is state of the art but just seems like rehashes of previous features. i think GTAV as a world took a major decline when compared to GTA4 it felt and seemed like GTA4 had more to make city feel alive and real compared to V.
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u/FoalKid 3d ago
Nah, GTA III only set the standard of what a 3D open world game could be and influenced games for decades since
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u/MCgrindahFM 3d ago
I was going to say I think most gaming historians agree on the generational impact of GTAIII, but generational titles like GTAIV and GTAV weren’t “groundbreaking” or “revolutionary” but there are BEST at what they do.
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u/FoalKid 3d ago
I’d argue that RDR2 takes that accolade
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u/MCgrindahFM 3d ago
Yeaaaah I’d say RDR2 is definitely up there as one of the best to do it. But again, RDR2 is a Rockstar game at its finest. It’s got the same narrative style, story structure, and gameplay beats RDR1 and parts of GTA have.
I think it’s the best game we’ve gotten in a decade, but I still wouldn’t call it “revolutionary”
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u/FoalKid 3d ago
I think there might be a case for calling the representation of natural environments and biomes revolutionary, I don’t think any other game has made natural landscapes that are anywhere near as convincing - but I totally see the case for saying that Rockstar hasn’t really done anything truly revolutionary since San Andreas. In many ways IV and V have still been a step backwards from what they’ve achieved there
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u/MCgrindahFM 3d ago
Actually that’s fair. We have certainly not received a full open world package like RDR2 in any game. You could play a hunting simulation and not even touch the rest of the game because the world is so dynamic
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u/RamsayFist22 3d ago
GTA 5 was a step backwards, but Red Dead Redemption 2’s World is 100% groundbreaking. I’ve never seen a map more teeming with life than that game. Everywhere you go there is random encounters, Easter eggs, animals to hunt, collectibles to gather, the realism and graphics. To this day I feel like nothing has gotten close to it, and the game came out in 2018
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u/just-killme-rn 3d ago
I haven’t played all of Rockstar’s games but the GTA series was absolutely a revolution and every time a new entry is released for the series, it sets a new bar for the gaming industry. Amazing how good Rockstar is at making games.
Unfortunately, I think they also pioneered the strategy of milking a live service game to death. GTA Online’s success has lead to so many studios trying to release one game and keep it alive for a decade.