Rockstar Leeds Founder Gordon Hall Dies, Aged 51

Gordon Hall, who founded the studio that would become Rockstar Leeds – and worked on the likes of Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and L.A. Noire – has died at the age of 51. As reported by GamesIndustry, members of the Yorkshire development scene began discussing the news today. No cause of death has been released at time of writing. Hall founded Möbius Entertainment in Leeds, England in 1997, which worked primarily on handheld games, including a Game Boy Advance version of Max Payne. Take-Two Interactive acquired the company in 2004, rebranding it as Rockstar Leeds in the process, with Rockstar co-founder Sam Houser saying the company's work on the Max Payne game had been impressive enough to want to bring them aboard. Rockstar Leeds, with Hall as studio president, became Rockstar's handheld specialists, co-developing GTA: Liberty City Stories and GTA: Vice City Stories with Rockstar North. It also helped port a number of other Rockstar games over the years. Later, the studio led development on GTA: Chinatown Wars for Nintendo DS - a game we awarded a 9.5/10 review and go on to call one of the best ever games on the handheld. We spoke to Hall in 2009 about the game's development, and how Rockstar Leeds managed to fit a GTA city into the DS' hardware. In a statement to IGN, a Rockstar Games spokesperson wrote: "We were very saddened to hear of the recent passing of Gordon Hall. During his time with us, Gordon helped create some truly amazing games and was instrumental in the creation of the classic, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. May he rest in peace. Our condolences go out to his family and friends for their loss.” Over the years, Hall also supported development on L.A. Noire, Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis, and more. In 2011, Hall resigned from Rockstar Leeds, later joining Activision Blizzard Mobile as chief creative officer. All of us at IGN offer our condolences to Hall's family and friends. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News.