Tag Archives: Leslie Benzies

Grand Theft Auto 5′s multiplayer is said to do for open world games what 2001′s GTA 3 did for single player, according to Rockstar North head Leslie Benzies.

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Take-Two’s resigned Rockstar’s big bosses into contracts lasting to 2012, with the new agreements involving elements of profit-sharing.

Sam Houser, Dan Houser and Leslie Benzies have all inked the new deal.

Unsurprisingly, the publisher has also agreed to fund future GTA games.

“The entire Rockstar team has always been dedicated to making groundbreaking games with unprecedented production values, style and depth,” said Sam Houser.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with the new management team at Take-Two, who have helped us to protect the unique atmosphere that fosters creativity and innovation.”

The news came as part of Take-Two’s fourth quarter financials announcement.

Press release after the link.

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According to this Times interview with Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies, GTA IV may be the most expensive game production of all time.

“It’s like making a theatre production, a few movies and an album all to fit into one package,” he says. He hasn’t a clue how much GTA IV has cost to make but hazards a guess at $100m. About 1,000 people have had a hand in developing it. The perfectionism Houser and Benzies demand of their teams is astonishing.

If true, that means the game was more expensice to create than Yu Suzuki’s Dreamcast opus Shenmue, which rolled in at a hilarious $70 million.

This is the second piece the Times has done on the Benzies interview: you can find the first one here.

Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies has pinned the media furore over violent videogames in recent years on a simple resistance to social progress.

“There is a big fear factor here. It’s the coming of the railways, it’s Elvis shaking his hips. It’s cars going over 25 miles per hour and making people explode,” he said, talking to the Times.

“We’ve had such a beating over the past three years. If I get into a confrontation about it, once I’ve had my beating, I ask if they’ve ever played the game. Invariably they haven’t.”

Benzies also claimed games should be treated in the same way as books and film, using Manhunt 2′s banning as an example.

“We wanted to make a horror game that would scare you in the same way a film would,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to me to be any worse than a film. If it’s a film or a book, you can do what you want. We seem to be in a different category.”

More through the link.