Rockstar Newswire

Today, the Social Club just got a whole lot more social. We’re proud to announce the launch of a full Rockstar Games Social Club site reboot with totally new features designed to let each of you make your mark as a member of the Rockstar community. The new launch includes custom personal Social Club user profiles, an all-new Friends system with public and direct messaging, the ability to link in and log in with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, Newswire activity and reply notifications and much more - plus coming this Wednesday will be the additional launch of Social Club CREWS where you'll be able to register, create and rally your Max Payne 3 Multiplayer Crew ahead of time. Read on for more detail on today's features launch...

• YOUR SOCIAL CLUB PROFILE PAGE –  Get in there and personalize your own Social Club profile page, complete with status updates, a display of your recent stats and accomplishments across your linked Social Club enabled games, and proper Friend linking with a Wall that updates your Social Club activity and lets you cheer and jeer your mates here at Social Club, as well as easily plan multiplayer sessions or whatever you'd like.

Our ardent Newswire commenters will also notice that you can now click on a Social Club member username in comments, and you'll be transported directly to the profile page of that person. Once CREWS registration launches this Wednesday, you can then recruit one another into Crews to team up for Gang Wars or do battle against one another in Team Deathmatch to be revved up for Max Payne 3 Multiplayer on day one.



• UPDATE YOUR ACTIVITY FEED – Keep tabs on all your Friends latest accomplishments via your real-time activity feed. With the release of Max Payne 3, you'll be able to let Friends know each time you've unlocked a Trophy/Achievement, throw down the gauntlet for a multiplayer session, or see when a friend has added a new soldier to their CREW (come Wednesday). Head to your profile page now at the main Social Club dashboard to get started.

• ADD YOUR FRIENDS – You can search and add Friends that are current Social Club members and also find, import and invite mates from your Facebook, Twitter and gaming accounts too. Whether it's to join you to attend the latest Official Social Club Multiplayer Event or to make sure you've got strength in numbers for your Crew - you can now easily recruit up.

• LINK IN & LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK OR TWITTER – You can also link in and display your other profiles from Facebook and Twitter (as well as your PlayStation Network IDs and XBL Gamertags) direct to your page and starting Wednesday, you'll be able to share Social Club activity from your Wall to those networks. For new members, we’ve even enabled Social Club account creation (and sign-in for existing members) using your Facebook or Twitter username and password.

Get ready for more big Social Club feature updates later this week with the launch of Social Club CREWS coming this Wednesday featuring Crew registration and Emblem Editor to start crafting your team's official crest - keep your eyes peeled to the Newswire for the word...
 

Big thanks to everyone that helped kick-off a full weekend of Triple XP for Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition with our Social Club Multiplayer Event held on PSN  Friday April 20th.

This was the last event on the Spring calendar before we properly inaugurate Max Payne 3 Multiplayer - complete with multiplayer Crews, Bullet Time® online, and non-stop Gang Wars and Payne Killer action beginning in just two weeks on Friday May 18th. In addition to that first live streaming weekend of official Social Club events, we'll also be online including players from all across Rockstar Studio and playing the game every day into June beginning on midnight Eastern of May 15th. We'll be announcing Gamertags and PSN IDs for that shortly beforehand - make sure you're following us on Facebook and Twitter for the word each day..

As for the Red Dead event on 4.20, each of our dev players got in there to mix it up with players in fan-favorite modes including Stronghold, Gang Shootout, Grab The Bag and Undead Overrun. Special shout to longtime Social Club multiplayer event participant ahetFIN who captured a great session of Grand Prix horse racing on video as you can peep in the below clip. Check the slideshow a bit later in this recap for a freeze frame from our vantage taken during the same race.

Later on, RedDeadDev3 was picking off enemies during Grab The Bag in Tumbleweed dishing out deaths to Easy--B, Mike_2472 and Koren-98-2011. But the reign on top didn't last long as JulianM44 came in and blasted the opposition away with some incredible gunslinger skills. Julian capped RedDeadDev3 with a Schofield Revolver a couple of times during this round, leading to agonied cries of defeat this side. Strong work there.

As the afternoon rolled on, we entered Chuparosa for some more Grab The Bag. RedDeadDev3 stepped in to save ol' ahetFIN by burying a few extra rounds into luis_arturo12. Least we could do, mate. By the way, everyone should check out LarsDK and ahetFIN's collab video post where they combined their perspectives to come up with a great video from a round in Thieves' Landing, viewable here. Also thanks to GTALAD4EVA for capturing the entire events page, to ferguson99 for this capture of gang match action and SOMETHINKDARK for this video showing some Grab The Bag. Thanks again to all of you that contribute these videos - they're always awesome to see.

• Shootout - MacFarlane's Ranch: http://youtu.be/m6OPtqIVLZY
• Grab The Bag - Chuparosa: http://youtu.be/Rn3c09jwRBE
• Hold Your Own - Las Hermanas: http://youtu.be/Ozx9Vbg8luA
• Gang Shootout - MacFarlane's Ranch: http://youtu.be/LTROW9R8CGI
• Stronghold - Thieves' Landing: http://youtu.be/5tVIa21hONk
• Gang Shootout - More MacFarlane's Ranch: http://youtu.be/snBUDIK58C4
• Grab The Bag - Tumbleweed: http://youtu.be/1NOQ9a9S1Xs

SWEEPSTAKES WINNERS

From this event's giveaways, Josh Ward, aka The_Infection, is the big winner of our two customized Red Dead PS3 controllers and our 20 runners-up that will each receive a Rockstar t-shirt, Red Dead playing cards and stickers include Agamer2006, Averryy, Retsphe, Jimminy_Billybob, GuidoTKP, Kuya_Ed, Ninja_Legend_D, Marston_Bellic, longlyload, stnickbond, scareface1970, Bash_Thordstrom, Timmy458, alo1992, MissKitty5678, MLDCAproductions, KingSB, GTA313, xRSLxMuSiCmAn and JohnWayneReborn. Enjoy the gear, all. 

Check out some more moments we captured from the event here in the slideshow - and we hope to see you all in the Max Payne 3 Multiplayer events starting in just a couple more weeks!

Hit the jump for a full list of participants from the event on April 20th...

Congrats to Charlie Miliner of New Hampshire, US (aka Social Club's Chaz2345) on being randomly selected out of thousands of entrants as the Grand Prize winner in our Max Payne 3 New York to São Paulo Sweepstakes.

A longtime Rockstar fan who counts Vice City & Manhunt amongst his throwback favorites, Charlie and his guest will begin their journey by catching a flight to NYC to get exclusive hands-on time with Max Payne 3 a full week before its May 15th release. From there, they'll follow Max's trail to São Paulo, Brazil staying at the chic Hotel Unique, the same hotel where Rockstar developers stayed during the making of the game. They'll also be getting VIP passes to attend the SONAR SÃO PAULO festival featuring performance from headliners Bjork and Justice as well as Max Payne 3 soundtrack star Emicida.

On top of all that Charlie will also receive a customized Max Payne 3 250GB Xbox 360, as well as a free year of Xbox LIVE Gold and 1,600 Microsoft Points, courtesy of Microsoft. Enjoy the trip Charlie, we hope to see you online in the upcoming Max Payne 3 Xbox LIVE multiplayer events when you get back!

Congratulations also to our ten runners-up: Social Club members JamieMilne, ER1588, Shigster, JohnyVegas, BigCountry2, DaveMiami7, renorainesPort, mikehuberiscool, _wiba_ and Freakk.Nomi, who all scored a Max Payne 3 prize pack, 1,600 Microsoft Points and a year of Xbox LIVE Gold.

Thanks again to all of our event partners: Sonar São Paulo, Tablet Hotels, Xbox 360, and Pitchfork.com, as well as absolutely everyone that entered. Look for plenty more great Social Club contests throughout the summer....
 

To celebrate the launch of Max Payne Mobile (currently available for iOS devices, and coming in the next week or so to Android as well) we're giving Social Club members the chance to bag this bespoke, 3rd generation (yup, that's the new one), 16Gb iPad.  

Head on over to the Social Club and fill in the form to stake your claim for this very limited-edition iPad complete with the iconic black and white original Max Payne image, scratch-proof finish and a Home button styled out with the Rockstar logo.

The entry period closes this Monday, April 30th and we'll pick one lucky winner at random. We'll also deliver Max Payne 3 Prize Packs - including official t-shirts, posters and more - to five randomly selected runners-up. Good luck.

http://socialclub.rockstargames.com/sweepstakes/maxpayneipad

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void in certain countries and where prohibited. Must be 17 or older. Ends April 30, 2012. See www.rockstargames.com/socialclub/events for complete official rules and eligibility details.

Everyone currently Bullet Timing® and Shootdodging™ their way through the original Max Payne on iPhones and iPads can now fire up the Social Club online for full stat tracking features (these features will also be enabled for those on Android devices when it releases for that platform in the next week or so).

Max Payne Mobile's Social Club stats cover nearly every aspect of the game including how many kills you've racked up, your best times in Hard Boiled and New York Minute, all your in-game Accomplishments, and even what your weapon of choice is based on most frequent use. Plus at the site, you can compare your skills versus your Social Club Friends for bragging rights to see who the most efficient killer is amongst you.

Check it all out at https://socialclub.rockstargames.com/games/maxpayne/stats.html and stay tuned for more exciting Social Club news around the corner...
 

Update: The event and sweepstakes have ended. Thanks to everyone that joined us, and enjoy Triple XP all weekend.

Following up an afternoon with Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition on April 5th, we continue our month on PlayStation Network Friday April 20th with a Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition multiplayer event from 4-7pm Eastern, the latest in the Rockstar Games Social Club Multiplayer Events Series. Triple XP will be live for both consoles.

Next up after this event ends: a month with Max Payne 3. Beginning Tuesday May 15th, we'll be playing every single day into June, including several multiplayer events with live video, chat and big prizes. Have a look at the official Spring calendar for full details.

For Friday, head over to the Social Club multiplayer events page where we'll have a video stream and live chat, plus we're giving away two hand-painted Red Dead Redemption controllers. Additionally, 20 runners-up will win Rockstar prize packs, each containing a Rockstar shirt, Red Dead playing cards and stickers.

And for those of you playing, not to worry if you don't own the Game of the Year Edition. Any version of Red Dead or Undead Nightmare is compatible with Game of the Year Edition multiplayer.

OFFICIAL ROCKSTAR PSN IDs

Hit the jump for more details, including information on how to get in on a game with us...

GTA fans from around the globe joined in for the April 5th Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition Social Club multiplayer event on PSN - tearing up Liberty City online, watching the video stream and entering the sweeps to win coveted prizes.

The hundreds in Social Club chat witnessed lots of action via the session's live broadcast - with players in multiplayer modes from the original GTAIV, The Lost and Damned as well as The Ballad of Gay Tony. Thanks to all who joined us for some pretty awesome TDM, GTA Race and of course fan-favorite Cops n’ Crooks (special shout to Flight666, PlayRockstar10 and Dinobrunio for a particularly memorable car-flipping, and epic shootouts bit of C&C).

Check out fan-captured footage here of some Deathmatch shoot-em-ups courtesy of cahill7777 - a longtime Red Dead Social Club multiplayer vet who joined us for his first GTAIV event. Good stuff.

And some additional videos from the day captured by some other dedicated Social Club members:

• Lone Wolf Biker, GTA Races and Free Mode (GM-Shenmue)
• GTA Race with some epic bus-on-bus pileons (ahetFIN)
• Stars in Your Eyes (InsectOverlords)

Cheers to all that joined in (see the roll-call below), and congrats to all the winners in the sweeps. Each will receive a Rockstar T-shirt, GTAIV license plate and a selection of collectible stickers. The lucky winners include 1337Pilot, Cheezy-Duz-It, D.E.LB, DeathStreak_UK, GalaxyxD, Jchandler, madman_chadman, MCKing, MichaelK, N9ne0sBaby, Pike187, Rafioso, RestNP1eces86, scareface1970, Scottendo, SOULLESSGING3R, Spongerob, StuntmanSeth, WolfRogers and xRSLxMuSiCmAn.

Here's a collection of screens from some of great moments during the afternoon, and hit the jump for a list of those that participated according to our records...

Special shout to longtime Social Club multiplayer events veteran GermanScientist who captured and edited the Blackwater Stronghold match seen above from our March 23rd multiplayer event. Check it out and don't miss some great moments when GermanScientist works with his posse to defend the safe in Dutch's Gang and earns the 'Avatar of Death' Achievement for not dying in the second round. Plus some pretty amusing running commentary throughout from players scheming on the elusive RedDeadDev5.

The event kicked off a full weekend of Triple XP in Red Dead Redemption on Xbox LIVE and t'was awesome to see a lot of our dedicated Social Club legends (all names below) in the turn out in addition to all those on the multiplayer events page chatting, watching the live video broadcast and entering the sweepstakes. As with the previous event, GTALAD4EVA was kind enough to record the entire thing, and even captured snippets of the chat in the video. Nice one.

Also congrats to our sweepstakes winners lucky enough to have their names randomly drawn from all the entries, including Grand Prize winner Jchandler who will be receiving two custom hand-painted Red Dead Xbox 360 controllers, and to all 20 runners-up. They are Co2-UK, Fan1wwe, peteeee007, AAT71FALI, JuggaloMemnoch, AnimeGuy2308, Rollaw, Olsky1, B-Dawk, PyratRum, emilegoss, YMe369, XRatedLegend, treedee71, Dogbone7, UFG_KingRomulus, 100indecisions, bhgabe, Mannylude and cdman17.

While RedDeadDev3 was killing and being killed on the live video stream, our other Rockstars were scattered across several other multiplayer modes. Early on in the afternoon, RedDeadDev6 entered Myths and Mavericks Free For All Matches in Cochinay where ADX Scarlett took down everyone in the opening Standoff, but it was GGretski ANBU who dominated, winning the round. Also, props to TWLWeeperReaper for an epic win of Gold Rush and to all others that came out on top in matches throughout the day.

The next multiplayer event is happening next Friday April 20th from 4-7PM Eastern when we'll be playing Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition on PSN. Check out the Spring events calendar for more information, and as a bonus you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Steam to get the word when we'll be jumping online to play other than the ones we pre-announce...

Below check out a few screens from March 23rd...

And hit the jump for a full list of participants from the afternoon...