GTA and Red Dead Developer Gordon Hall Dies

The founder of the studio that became Rockstar Leeds, Gordon Hall, has died at the age of 51.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Hall's career focus was on handheld ports, working on games including portable GTA titles Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and GTA: Liberty City Stories.

GTA and Red Dead Developer Gordon Hall Dies

Möbius Entertainment was founded by Hall in 1997 and went on to develop the GBA version of Max Payne - still to this day considered a technical masterpiece.

Despite the hardware restrictions, the GBA version included a form of the trademark 'bullet-time' mechanic - swapping the third-person view for a 'top down' 2D presentation. This impressed Rockstar president Sam Houser, ultimately resulting in their acquisition and rebranding to Rockstar Leeds in 2004.

Rockstar Leeds worked on handheld versions of the popular Grand Theft Auto games before Hall moved into a new role around player psychology and microtransactions. In 2013, he joined Activision Blizzard Mobile as Chief Creative Officer.

Martyn Brown, co-founder of Team17 said "Gordon was simply brilliant to be around, incredibly motivating and ever positive."

"His pursuit of excellence was staggering and he formed a great, trusting bond with those who chose to work [hard] alongside him. As a close friend, he was truly inspirational and socially speaking a real energetic one-off who could endlessly entertain at the drop of a hat, holding everyone in the palm of his hand. Gordon will be very sadly missed."

He is survived by his son, James.