Leeds? Why does this look like Renderware tools?

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Q: Leeds? Why does this look like it's Renderware tools for Grand Theft Auto games?

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A: Not sure how this could possibly be asked, but if so, the reason is that after EA purchased Criterion, the owners of Renderware at the time, Rockstar had a choice of renewing that license, or making a new engine. At the time, you'd think they had their hands full with the RAGE engine, but it actually wasn't built from the ground up by Rockstar. RAGE was the successor to the Angel Game Engine(AGE) by Angel Studios, later sold to Take-Two and turned into Rockstar San Diego(creators of Midnight Club & Red Dead). Similarly, while R* had a new studio and new engine(that was pretty good for the time before R* touched it), they also needed a new game for Sonys PSP. RAGE wasn't ready yet, with Tabletop Tennis coming out in 2006, whereas Liberty City Stories(R* Leeds) came out in 2005.

Since Rockstar wasn't going to renew their license for RW, and pay EA, and the upcoming RAGE engine by R* San Diego was definitely not going to run on a PSP, they opted to take the knowledge they know of RW, and made their own - named Leeds Engine. Leeds Engine shares a lot of similarities with Renderware, when you look at the data, but they should not be mistaken for the same formats(i.e Leeds Engine doesn't use plugins/extensions, like RW). The Leeds Engine became the engine for Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, Chinatown Wars, and even Manhunt 2. In retrospect, R* Leeds definitely got their worth out of the Leeds Engine, save for Manhunt 2s severe censorship.