Rockstar Games: Yorkshire's role in the Grand Theft Auto franchise as trailer for GTA6 is released

Even if the UK Games Expo is not your idea of the perfect weekend away, most people have heard of the action-adventure, third-person-shooter iconic game, Grand Theft Auto. Ten years since the last game was released, GTA VI is the 15th game in the series by Rockstar Games, but it isn’t set to be released until 2025.

However, among all the excitement caused by the one-minute and 30 second trailer, many people may be shocked to find out the history of the game can be found in Leeds in the 1990s.

In 1997 four men, Gordon Hall, Jason McGann, Dave Box, Ian Bowden and Justin Johnson came together and made the company, Möbius Entertainment. Möbius Entertainment would go on to work on some huge games of the late 90s and early 00s including, Bionicle: The Game, Barbie Horse Adventure and Max Payne, all on the GameBoy Advance.

However, things changed in 2004 when the quartet’s company was acquired by Rockstar Games and rebranded to Rockstar Leeds, setting up shop in a converted 18th century church. Things progressed further after the release of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, in late 2005, and the studio relocated to the City West office park.

Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto in 1997 and since it’s had 14 more games added to it’s series and has been recognised as one of the best games of all time.

Rockstar Leeds primarily published handheld games for GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advance, as well as Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition and sever Grand Theft Auto games for the PSP including, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.

Bowden, Hall and McGann all left the company in 2007, but Rockstar Leeds would go on to work on some of the hottest games to hit the shelves such as Red Dead Redemption in 2010 and its sequel, the 25-times award winning game Red Dead Redemption 2.

Unfortunately, back in 2021 the Doncaster-born game developer, Hall, passed away, aged only 51.

His Möbius Entertainment and Rockstar Leeds co-founder spoke, McGann, to Game Republic at the time of his death and reminisced about their time living together in Harrogate and joked: “I could fill books with our tales of our adventures – and the crazy thing is so could hundreds of others too, his heart was so big.

“For me the time I spent living with him in Harrogate through the mid-to-late 90s are my fondest memories,” McGann added, “We were both broke, young, free and hungry for success. We’d work hard and play hard – we’d make our plans, and with someone like Gordon, we always got them done (one way or another).”

Grand Theft Auto VI isn’t set to be released until 2025, however, for many fans it's worth the wait as they’ve already been waiting ten years since the last game, Grand Theft Auto V, was released in 2013.