Rockstar Leeds was founded in 1997 as Mobius Entertainment by former members of UK development studios Twilight (creators of cult platformer Alfred Chicken) and Hookstone. Though the team has made occasional forays into console and PC development, the studio has, since its inception, primarily focused on developing handheld games, beginning on Game Boy Color, moving over to Game Boy Advance and finally, after becoming a Rockstar subsidiary, developing for the Nintendo DS, PSP and iOS.
In 2003, the studio, based on their work on isometric third-person shooter A Sound of Thunder (based on the Ray Bradbury story and 2005 film of the same name), was contracted by Rockstar Games to develop a Game Boy Advance port of Max Payne to be released alongside its sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Mobius Entertainment completely rebuilt the game using the same engine as A Sound of Thunder; ironically, however, A Sound of Thunder was released after Max Payne due to the film being delayed for years past its intended 2002 release. The port was critically lauded for retaining most of the elements and charm of its predecessors, including all the graphic novel-style cutscenes and voice acting contained therein. In April 2004, thanks to the success of their Max Payne port, Mobius Entertainment was acquired by Rockstar, changing their name to Rockstar Leeds.
As Rockstar Leeds, the team has primarily served as Rockstar's handheld port division. They have also developed all three modern handheld GTA games in partnership with Rockstar North--Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories and Chinatown Wars--and Beaterator, a handheld music creation utility overseen by music producer Timbaland. Their most recent release was the PC port of Rockstar and Team Bondi's L.A. Noire.
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