The former president of Rockstar North raised $42 million to develop a "competitor" GTA

Leslie Benzies, who previously served as president of Rockstar North, has attracted investments of $42 million to develop a new game Everywhere. One of the investors was the Chinese giant NetEase.The funds will be received by the Benzis studio Build a Rocket Boy.

According to The Telegraph, among the investors in the round were the Makers Fund, the New York company Galaxy Interactive and the publisher NetEase.

While working at Rockstar North, Leslie Benzis was the producer of all released GTA games, starting with the third part. After the scandalous departure from the company, he tried to sue the publisher of Take-Two for $ 150 million in unpaid royalties. Despite the fact that the court did not satisfy the claim in full, Leslie managed to obtain the right to receive part of the income from the games (the exact amount is not called).  

In 2018, Benzis founded Build a Rocket Boy with offices in Edinburgh and Budapest. Now the team has 130 people, including former developers of the GTA series. Together they are working on a new game Everywhere.

Despite the fact that some publications in absentia call it a “GTA competitor”, Benzis claims that Everywhere is “very different” from Rockstar titles. It is known that this will be an open-world project based on the Amazon Lumberyard engine. The developers are betting on immersiveness and want to give players the opportunity to influence storylines and create their own narrative.

NetEase, which invested in Build a Rocket Boy, is the second largest gaming company in China. The publisher owns a number of small developers, and also has stakes in studios such as Bungie and Quantic Dream.

Also on the topic:

• The co-founder and lead screenwriter of Rockstar Games is leaving the company. Why is this an event?NetEase’s annual revenue from games was $6.67 billion.
• This is more than the earnings of Activision Blizzard and EAThe main thing from the Take-Two report: the growth of digital sales and revenue from microtransactions
• Is there any news?