The old servers are gone. The new game is nearly here - and it's the best version there's ever been.
Let's not sugar-coat it: The Rockstar Game was hit by a ransomware attack, and everything went with it - every band, every chart, every account, the entire database, encrypted and taken in one night.
The attackers wanted £45,000 to hand it back. I didn't have £45,000. And honestly? The server logs tell a pretty clear story - they didn't lock the data away for safe-keeping, they simply deleted it on their way out. There was never really anything to buy back.
So I'm sorry. Genuinely. Years of your bands, your rivalries and your late-night chart battles vanished, and there's no undo button for that. If you're reading this: thank you for caring about a daft little game about making it as a rockstar. It always meant the world to me that you did.
Here's the twist. The Rockstar Game had been running on the same creaking foundations for the better part of twenty five years. The orignal game was built in the year 2000. Rebuilding it properly was always the plan but never the priority - there was always a live game to keep alive instead and life got in the way.
The attack made the decision for me. In the previous year I had been rebuilding the whole thing from the ground up - a new technology stack, new mobile friendly responsive design which enabled new ideas that were impossible on the old system. The irony that isn't lost on me: I'd actually started the rebuild months before any of this happened. It just went from low priorty, and unlikely to ever complete, side-project to priority and only-project overnight.
Every account and every band from the old game is gone - that's is the hard truth, and I won't pretend otherwise. However, it also means the relaunch is a genuine level playing field: nobody's sitting on a twenty-year head start. Everyone walks through the door at the same moment. New era, clean slate, first single still to be written.
But best of all, if gives me a chance to develop features I'd wanted to for, not joking, 20 years!
Rebuild progress, in plain terms:
✅ New engine - built & under test
✅ New world & economy - live
✅ New look - this is it
🎸 Final polish & playtesting - now
How close? Days, not weeks. The finish line is genuinely in sight.
Fifteen music markets, each with its own economy and audience. Break America, conquer Japan, quietly own Scandinavia - the world map is now the game board.
Twenty genres that sell differently everywhere. K-Pop tops the charts in Seoul and struggles in Nashville; country does the opposite. Pick your sound, pick your battlefield.
Write songs, hire the right producer for your genre, drop singles and albums, and fight your way up the charts week after week.
Tour real venues - from sweaty back-rooms to sold-out stadiums - and watch your popularity (and your bank balance) climb.
Nightly charts, rankings, rich lists, achievements, friend groups and rivalries. The world keeps turning whether you're online or not.
A modern, fast, mobile-friendly rebuild designed to grow for the next decade - not creak through another twenty years.
Leave your email and I'll give you a heads-up the moment the new game opens. No spam, no nonsense, just a an email when beta is ready and an email on launch.
Prefer to just message me? Scroll down - my email's at the bottom, and every note gets read.
The community forum is still standing - the one corner of the old site that made it through the wreckage. Come reminisce, tell me what you want from the new game, or just let me know you're still out there. I will be reading every message.
Open the forum →This is your game as much as mine. If there's something you've always wanted it to do, I want to hear it - every suggestion gets read.
Email your ideaor write to carl [at] therockstargame [dot] com