Leslie Peter Benzies (born 17 January 1971) is a Scottish

video game producer A video game producer is the top person in charge of overseeing development of a video game. History The earliest documented use of the term ''producer'' in games was by Trip Hawkins, who established the position when he founded Electronic Ar ...

and the former president of

Rockstar North Rockstar North Limited (formerly DMA Design Limited) is a British video game development company and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Edinburgh. The company was founded as DMA Design in Dundee in 1987 by David Jones, soon hiring former clas ...

, a subsidiary of

Rockstar Games Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...

. He was the lead developer on the ''

Grand Theft Auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily d ...

'' series, taking responsibility from '' Grand Theft Auto III'' to '' Grand Theft Auto V'' (including ''

Grand Theft Auto Online ''Grand Theft Auto Online'' is an online multiplayer action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 1 October 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 18 November 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xb ...

''). Benzies is no longer working for Rockstar, and was in a lawsuit with its parent company,

Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K, which operate internal ...

, over unpaid royalties from April 2016 to February 2019.

Biography

Benzies was born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

but moved far to Elgin when he was young. When Benzies was 11, his father Leonard purchased a

Dragon 32 The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales before mo ...

computer. Benzies taught himself how to program and wrote his first game. Benzies' professional career as a video game programmer began in 1995 at DMA Design (now Rockstar North), where he was team lead developing the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...

video game ''

Space Station Silicon Valley ''Space Station Silicon Valley'' is a platform video game developed by DMA Design and published by Take-Two Interactive. It was originally released for the Nintendo 64 in October 1998. An adaption of the game for Game Boy Color was developed by ...

''. This game was released in October 1998, after which he started assembling the team that would create '' Grand Theft Auto III''. In 2005, he and

Sam Houser Sam Houser (born 1971) is a British video game producer. He is the co-founder and president of Rockstar Games and one of the creative driving forces behind the games in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' franchise, being producer since the third game. ...

, President of Rockstar Games, received a BAFTA Special Award. In June 2014, he announced a deal to purchase the St Stephen's Church in

Stockbridge, Edinburgh Stockbridge is a suburb of Edinburgh, located north of the city centre, bounded by the New Town and by Comely Bank. The name is Scots ''stock brig'' from Anglic ''stocc brycg'', meaning a timber bridge. Originally a small outlying village, ...

for a little over £500,000. He plans to preserve the building and create a trust composed of members of the community to manage it. Benzies took sabbatical leave from Rockstar on 1 September 2014. In January 2016 it was announced that he had left the company. Benzies later claimed that he was persuaded to take the sabbatical, during which his son and several of his friends were fired from the company and his email access was suspended; when he attempted to return to work, he was ordered to leave by the office manager and says that the company made "scurrilous allegations" about his actions at work. On 12 April 2016, Benzies started legal action against Rockstar Games and its parent

claiming $150 million in unpaid royalties. In January 2017, he set up five new companies including Royal Circus Games which intends to develop games for consoles, PCs and mobile devices. On 29 March 2018, Benzies' litigation against Rockstar and Take-Two suffered a significant setback when the companies succeeded in dismissing 12 out of 18 of his claims, though the court did rule that Benzies "remains entitled to receive certain royalties" as part of his compensation. On 1 October 2018, it was announced that Benzies' new company was called ''Build a Rocket Boy Games''. The company has raised £32 million from investors in China and New York for its upcoming game ''Everywhere''. On 7 February 2019, Benzies' litigation with Take-Two had officially come to an end. All parties involved in the case successfully executed a confidential settlement, with each agreeing to bear its own costs and expenses, including, without limitation, attorney's fees.

Works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benzies, Leslie 1971 births Living people Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductees BAFTA winners (people) British video game designers People from Aberdeen People from Elgin, Moray Rockstar Games Video game producers