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Angel Studios and Rockstar Games announced Midnight Club: Street Racing for the PlayStation 2 back on January 27, 2000. One screenshot was released on January 28, 2000 to go along with the press release.
Before that, Angel Studios had developed games like Resident Evil 2 for the N64 and Midtown Madness for the PC. Several screenshots and bits of information came out, and before you knew it, the official website for Midnight Club: Street Racing was opened on October 6, 2000.
The first game was released on October 26th, 2000 on the Sony PlayStation 2 Computer Entertainment System. It was later released in Europe on November 8, 2000 and in Japan on March 1, 2001. A Game Boy Advance version was also developed by Rebellion and published by Destination Software, Inc. on November 8, 2001.
Then, Rockstar Games chose to make Angel Studios a primary developer and renamed them to Rockstar San Diego. Sam Houser, President of Rockstar Games, once said, "Angel has been a valued partner to Rockstar over the past three years, and we are particularly excited about our latest collaboration, Midnight Club II. Angel Studios has a strong history of developing state of the art technology and exciting content. We look forward to the benefits of having Angel work exclusively for us going forward and having them as members of our talented team. Along with Rockstar North, Rockstar Toronto and Rockstar Vancouver, Rockstar San Diego will continue to develop the types of games for which Rockstar has become world-renowned."
On May 16, 2002, Rockstar San Diego announced Midnight Club 2. It was dubbed as "the future of illegal street racing" and sold better than the first. After the first video went up on August 16, the game was out in no time.
Two years later, a third game is finally announced and Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is shown at E3 2004 behind closed doors. I actually approached the doors but you had to have an appointment to see the game. Upon asking "how do you get an appointment," they didn't have an answer.
The game came out on April 12, 2005 on the PC and Xbox. The PSP game came out shortly after. However, the series did not end there...
On May 16, 2007, Midnight Club: Los Angeles was announced for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles. It will be released in late 2008.
If you have anything to add to this history, please let me know.