Grand Theft Auto V has been unavoidable this month. Rockstar Games’ highly anticipated sequel released on September 17 to rave reviews and sales of over $800 million in only 24 hours. Software launches don't get much bigger than that, and we're proud to share that ten Full Sail graduates played a role in helping bring this massive success to life.

These artists, programmers, and designers come from our Computer Animation and Game Development programs, and were part of the GTA V team at Rockstar’s San Diego studio. They include: John Boyer (Game Development, 2005), John Diaz (Game Development, 2006), Joseph Fink (Game Development, 2012), Donald Jones (Game Development, 2007), Jason Jurecka (Game Development, 2003), Carlos Mijares (Game Development, 2007), Darrick Pister (Computer Animation, 2007), Scott Schoennagel (Computer Animation, 2003), Barton Slade (Game Development, 2011), and Grant Werner (Computer Animation, 2003).

From left: John Diaz, Joseph Fink, Carlos Mijares, Barton Slade, Scott Schoennagel, Donald Jones, John Boyer, and Grant Werner.

Four of these alumni also worked on Rockstar’s previous hit, Red Dead Redemption, and we’d like to congratulate the entire group for the critical and commercial reception their hard work has received. We're also looking forward to playing against some of them when the GTA's online component goes live on October 1.