GTA Mastermind Leslie Benzies opens 4 new game companies at once after leaving and suing Rockstar

[Miya]

[url]http://www.scotsman.com/future-scotland/tech/grand-theft-auto-mastermind-leslie-benzies-launches-new-companies-1-4345247[/url]

[QUOTE]Leslie Benzies, former president of Rockstar North, the studio which produced the acclaimed Grand Theft Auto franchise, looks set to branch out on his own after incorporating several new firms.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]They include Royal Circus Games Limited, Starship Group and Everywhere Game Limited, the first of which has applied to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to make clear its primary aim is to develop video games for consoles, PCs and mobile devices.

In what may be a sign of the company’s first project, Royal Circus has also trademarked the title, Time for a New World, as well as the associated hashtag #TFANW.

Other filings suggest the 46-year-old may not be content with developing games. One new firm is entitled VR-Chitect Limited. According to documents filed with the IPO as well as the United States Patent and Trademark Office, it will produce headsets, glasses and software to “enable virtual reality viewing” similar to Sony’s PlayStation VR.[/QUOTE]

if your curious about who he is, he sued rockstar after allegedly rockstar fucked him over. he was also essentially the backbone/savior of the company up to GTA 5.:
[url]http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/270263/5_things_to_know_about_GTA_producer_Leslie_Benzies_legal_fight_with_Rockstar.php[/url]

[Wafflemonstr]

Rockstar died with his departure, as they have shown with their lack of any single player support, and their money gouging in the online portion. I hope they prove me wrong with Red Dead Redemption 2 but I'm not optimistic.

[chenhonkster]

[QUOTE=Wafflemonstr;51713272]Rockstar died with his departure, as they have shown with their lack of any single player support, and their money gouging in the online portion. I hope they prove me wrong with Red Dead Redemption 2 but I'm not optimistic.[/QUOTE]

Red Dead Redemption practically killed Rockstar San Diego, so hopefully he can bring in some of those who used to work there. There's a reason why there hasn't been Midnight Club after it, and they were real good at making racing games.

[C O Y O T E]

[QUOTE=Wafflemonstr;51713272]Rockstar died with his departure, as they have shown with their lack of any single player support, and their money gouging in the online portion. I hope they prove me wrong with Red Dead Redemption 2 but I'm not optimistic.[/QUOTE]

Game development cycles are [I]loooong[/I] - especially when it comes to Rockstar games. Wouldn't surprise me if RDR2 has been in development since the first RDR was released. Point is, Benzies most likely worked on RDR2 as well. If your "seal of quality" requires his involvement, you can relax.

[DOG-GY]

If you honestly care about developers than you should forego purchasing RDR2. Even if it is the best piece of art ever made what R* did was unacceptable.

[Shier]

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;51713320]If you honestly care about developers than you should forego purchasing RDR2. Even if it is the best piece of art ever made what R* did was unacceptable.[/QUOTE]

Unless it comes out for PC, I'm not touching it. I hate consoles.

[carcarcargo]

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;51713320]If you honestly care about developers than you should forego purchasing RDR2. Even if it is the best piece of art ever made what R* did was unacceptable.[/QUOTE]

I'm not overly hyped for it any way after GTA5 was so disappointing. They utterly ruined the multiplayer with their stupid microtransaction shit (which is fucking unacceptable for a god damn £45 game), the story mode itself felt pretty meh and I haven't returned to it since.

[simkas]

[QUOTE=Wafflemonstr;51713272]Rockstar died with his departure, as they have shown with their lack of any single player support, and their money gouging in the online portion. I hope they prove me wrong with Red Dead Redemption 2 but I'm not optimistic.[/QUOTE]

Oh come on, I completely don't buy that him alone is what makes their games great. They have massive teams, I don't see how could one person possibility be entirely responsible for their projects coming together in the end.

[Curls]

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;51713386]Unless it comes out for PC, I'm not touching it. I hate consoles.[/QUOTE]

Even if it put PC gaming to shame buying even a PS4 for the few games that are worth it... still honestly wouldn't be worth it

it's sad to see the state of alternative systems for PC gamers IMHO.

This isn't to say consoles are shit, but if you have one system getting another is worthless really.

I guess that's mostly a good thing when you really think about it though, but like, when there ARE exclusives, there are so few reasons to pick the alternatives.

[DOG-GY]

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;51713386]Unless it comes out for PC, I'm not touching it. I hate consoles.[/QUOTE]
Shouldn't really change the fact that buying anything from R* is endorsing cheating and horrible practice.

[C O Y O T E]

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;51713425]Shouldn't really change the fact that buying anything from R* is endorsing cheating and horrible practice.[/QUOTE]

or I just like their games and I trust that they can provide great single-player, open-world experiences ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[simkas]

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;51713425]Shouldn't really change the fact that buying anything from R* is endorsing cheating and horrible practice.[/QUOTE]

Yeah except all those hundreds of employees that work on those games that had zero to do with any of that controversy. Fuck those guys, they don't deserve money for all their hard work, totally.

[JennyC6]

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;51713425]Shouldn't really change the fact that buying anything from R* is endorsing cheating and horrible practice.[/QUOTE]

So, what, we just stop buying games in general? Because what R* does is industry standard practice. That's how it's done for AAA devs, that's how it ends up done in indie studios. The only difference here is that R* has a target on their head and the media's gonna go wild with anything they can to slander the makers of 'dat evul grand thooft otto' game. So they're happy to gloss over how everyone else in the biz does the same shit while running rampant stories of R*'s assholery in the hopes it gets them ad revenue and furthers their anti-GTA cause.

Hell, while you're at it, don't buy clothes either, because every piece of apparel you touch is the result of a chinese sweatshop. Same goes for consumer electrics. Your phone? Yup, congrats, buying that supported far worse practices than anything R* does.

If you're gonna get all up in arms over R*'s douchebaggery you need to pretty much become a luddite, otherwise you end up a hypocrite.

[SirJon]

Now make a proper rival to break GTA's monopoly PLEASE

[simkas]

[QUOTE=SirJon;51713535]Now make a proper rival to break GTA's monopoly PLEASE[/QUOTE]

Monopoly of what? I don't think you know what monopoly means.

[SirJon]

[QUOTE=Coyoteze;51713429]or I just like their games and I trust that they can provide great single-player, open-world experiences ¯\_(ツ)_/¯[/QUOTE]

why would you trust them with [I]that[/I] in particular though lol gta v was pretty fucking shit in that regard

[It's crispy]

[QUOTE=SirJon;51713543]why would you trust them with [I]that[/I] in particular though lol gta v was pretty fucking shit in that regard[/QUOTE]

actually, gta v's single player was extremely good as hell

what the heck are your standards for a good game if gta v was shit

[Kannata]

[QUOTE=simkas;51713538]Monopoly of what? I don't think you know what monopoly means.[/QUOTE]

GTA is the most popular open-world shooter on the market and has been that since GTA IV. It has way better sales than any other open-world game.

[Zolofto]

[QUOTE=Kannata;51713583]GTA is the most popular open-world shooter on the market and has been that since GTA IV. It has way better sales than any other open-world game.[/QUOTE]

Making a recognized product of good quality does not make you a monopoly. lol.

[GefJeff]

[QUOTE=Kannata;51713583]GTA is the most popular open-world shooter on the market and has been that since GTA IV. It has way better sales than any other open-world game.[/QUOTE]

But there's still other Open-World games that offer a similar experience to GTA on the market. Just because something has a large share of the market doesn't mean they have the WHOLE market

[mezzokoko]

[QUOTE=Kannata;51713583]GTA is the most popular open-world shooter on the market and has been that since GTA IV. It has way better sales than any other open-world game.[/QUOTE]

Most popular of X =/= Monopoly on X

[coup]

[QUOTE=Zang-Pog;51713340]I don't know, they practically begged him to fix RDR1 and he didn't sound too happy about R*
If I was in his shoes, I woulda gotten the fuck away from them after stitching the game together[/QUOTE]

Practically? They quite literally begged him, even giving him silly revering titles like people do with eSports players.

[editline]23rd January 2017[/editline]

Those emails were both hilarious and depressing. I was quite skeptical at first about the whole situation, but after the emails were verified to be real then I couldn't help but laugh.

[MissingNoGuy55]

I always wondered what happened with this. Heard it a year ago then everything went silent up until now.

The entire story of Benzies recently just breaks my heart, to be honest.

[Nautsabes]

I wanna work at a place called Starship Group--sounds groovy.

[DOG-GY]

[QUOTE=TestECull;51713449]So, what, we just stop buying games in general? Because what R* does is industry standard practice. That's how it's done for AAA devs, that's how it ends up done in indie studios. The only difference here is that R* has a target on their head and the media's gonna go wild with anything they can to slander the makers of 'dat evul grand thooft otto' game. So they're happy to gloss over how everyone else in the biz does the same shit while running rampant stories of R*'s assholery in the hopes it gets them ad revenue and furthers their anti-GTA cause.

Hell, while you're at it, don't buy clothes either, because every piece of apparel you touch is the result of a chinese sweatshop. Same goes for consumer electrics. Your phone? Yup, congrats, buying that supported far worse practices than anything R* does.

If you're gonna get all up in arms over R*'s douchebaggery you need to pretty much become a luddite, otherwise you end up a hypocrite.[/QUOTE]
not all game devs cheat people out of millions in royalties

[editline]23rd January 2017[/editline]

[QUOTE=Coyoteze;51713429]or I just like their games and I trust that they can provide great single-player, open-world experiences ¯\_(ツ)_/¯[/QUOTE]
[quote]If you honestly care[/quote]

[editline]23rd January 2017[/editline]

also testecull you make really unfair comparisons with things that are near essentials for life versus pure entertainment

[simkas]

[QUOTE=Kannata;51713583]GTA is the most popular open-world shooter on the market and has been that since GTA IV. It has way better sales than any other open-world game.[/QUOTE]

So it literally is not a monopoly. Maybe if other developers made open-world games that matched the quality of GTA and would appeal to the same amount of people, they'd get that many sales too.

[editline]23rd January 2017[/editline]

Also you're all forgetting that Benzies just decided to stop doing his job for over a year with the pretense of it being a sabbatical leave. He's not exactly completely innocent here.

[catbarf]

[QUOTE=Coyoteze;51713294]Game development cycles are [I]loooong[/I] - especially when it comes to Rockstar games. Wouldn't surprise me if RDR2 has been in development since the first RDR was released. Point is, Benzies most likely worked on RDR2 as well. If your "seal of quality" requires his involvement, you can relax.[/QUOTE]

The industry standard game development cycle is 2 years long. Better known studios, or self-funded ones, can get away with a 3, [i]rarely[/i] 4 year dev cycle. Over four years is bordering on development hell and a virtual guarantee that at least some of the budget has been wasted on redone, replaced, and/or obsolete content. If Rockstar's been working on RDR2 since RDR came out, that would be a very bad sign for the company.

Benzies most likely was minimally involved, at most, with RDR2.

[JennyC6]

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;51713681]not all game devs cheat people out of millions in royalties[/quote]

But they do. Working for a game dev is absolute hell and you get paid a minute fraction of what you should be paid whenever the game you work on goes on to become a megahit. You get the salary you earned while working on the game and that's it. Rarely do the developers themselves even get a commission on it, when they do it's a pittance. They're forced to work 70, 80 hour weeks as a rule, they have to deal with the talking heads and marketing departments constantly making unreasonable demands(And to meet those demands, lest they be fired immediately), and if what they don't put out isn't perfect(Which it never will be) they have to put up with literal death threats aimed at them from every corner of the internet. Even if they do everything right someone in the marketing department will undoubtedly piss off the gaming public and get those death threats rolling anyway, or perhaps they're forced to add bullshit like microtransactions or a half-assed gamemode to satisfy the blurbs.

Shitty working conditions is par for the course. You don't want to go into game development with ideations of making money and helping your hobby. You'll fail at the former because they won't pay it to you, and you'll burn out on the latter.

[quote]also testecull you make really unfair comparisons with things that are near essentials for life versus pure entertainment[/QUOTE]

So phones and playstations and smart TVs are near essentials? Well shit, looks like I'm gonna die in the next week, I only have one of those three things! Call the UN, I need a PS4 and a Smart TV delivered asap! /s

Clothes are the only thing I listed that are an essential and you can spin your own free of sweatshop labor if you're willing to learn a fairly simple skill.

[DOG-GY]

[QUOTE=TestECull;51713789]But they do. Working for a game dev is absolute hell and you get paid a minute fraction of what you should be paid whenever the game you work on goes on to become a megahit. You get the salary you earned while working on the game and that's it. Rarely do the developers themselves even get a commission on it, when they do it's a pittance. They're forced to work 70, 80 hour weeks as a rule, they have to deal with the talking heads and marketing departments constantly making unreasonable demands(And to meet those demands, lest they be fired immediately), and if what they don't put out isn't perfect(Which it never will be) they have to put up with literal death threats aimed at them from every corner of the internet. Even if they do everything right someone in the marketing department will undoubtedly piss off the gaming public and get those death threats rolling anyway, or perhaps they're forced to add bullshit like microtransactions or a half-assed gamemode to satisfy the blurbs.

Shitty working conditions is par for the course. You don't want to go into game development with ideations of making money and helping your hobby. You'll fail at the former because they won't pay it to you, and you'll burn out on the latter.

So phones and playstations and smart TVs are near essentials? Well shit, looks like I'm gonna die in the next week, I only have one of those three things! Call the UN, I need a PS4 and a Smart TV delivered asap! /s

Clothes are the only thing I listed that are an essential and you can spin your own free of sweatshop labor if you're willing to learn a fairly simple skill.[/QUOTE]
Dude leslie bensies was literally owed that money contractually. It's not as if he was a low level worker drone getting paid jack shit.

Phones are near essentials for obvious reasons. I never meant anything about smart tvs or playstations and you know it, chill out.

Nice not retarded argument there about hand making clothes. Please do me the justice of not being intentionally obtuse and spinning hypotheticals or half baked arguments, or actually just don't reply.

[C O Y O T E]

[QUOTE=SirJon;51713543]why would you trust them with [I]that[/I] in particular though lol gta v was pretty fucking shit in that regard[/QUOTE]

In [I]your [/I]opinion. I thought the singleplayer in GTA 5 was pretty solid. Not mind-blowing in any way, but satisfying. To me. That's [I]my[/I] opinion. :]

[editline]23rd January 2017[/editline]

[QUOTE=catbarf;51713768]The industry standard game development cycle is 2 years long. Better known studios, or self-funded ones, can get away with a 3, [i]rarely[/i] 4 year dev cycle. Over four years is bordering on development hell and a virtual guarantee that at least some of the budget has been wasted on redone, replaced, and/or obsolete content. If Rockstar's been working on RDR2 since RDR came out, that would be a very bad sign for the company.

Benzies most likely was minimally involved, at most, with RDR2.[/QUOTE]

Speaking from experience, the pre-development stage can last for longer than the development itself. Chance is internally there were discussions of an RDR sequel the moment it was realized how successful the game was, even if it was just conceptual.
With GTA 5 taking up the bulk of the team's capacity between 2010-2013 (post-RDR) there was plenty of time for a smaller team to start writing up the basics for gameplay, story and the world itself. With GTA out the door in 2013 they probably switched focus completely to RDR2 to kick development into full gear.
I was approached early last year by a Rockstar recruiter for an "unannounced title" (but turned it down due to lack of security) for technical camera animation, which is pretty late-stage development to do.

Then again I don't know how Rockstar works, but I'd imagine if it's anything like I've seen elsewhere, that's how it would go. v:vs:v
Adding to that, RDR1 was in development hell anyway: [url]https://gamerant.com/exred-dead-redemption-developer-speaks-rockstar-san-diego-dr-58257/[/url] And early development [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_Red_Dead_Redemption"]started in 2005[/URL].