They have mad, mad egos.
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Red Dead Redemption stories emerge from court documents, including Houser panicking
- Thread starter Quentyn
- Start date
They have mad, mad egos.
D4rth Man7iz
Member
A decent movie must come out of this!!
Worried for future Rockstar games
Worried for future Rockstar games
~
President and producer at Rockstar North went on a break after GTA5 development [he helped ship magnificent game]. When he returned, he found out they have fired him without reason and not willing to pay him his part of the profits.
ShutterMunster
Junior Member
Holy christ! This thread is sensational.
TangoAlphaLima
Member
Sure, but we don't really know what the context of those emails are. We're getting extremely small snippets painting Benzies in a favorable light, and making the Housers seem somewhat incompetent. That may be the truth, or it may be somewhere in between.
DryvBy
Member
So good. lol
Englebert3rd
Unconfirmed Member
Hello darkness, my old Benz.
Come to think of it, I really don't know much about Rockstar "stars" and game developers. Are they obscure?
OMG. Is there a source for this? I want to watch more of this dog.
Houser was like:
OMG. Is there a source for this? I want to watch more of this dog.
Spring Drive
Banned
A decent movie must come out of this!!
Worried for future Rockstar games
Yeah, I want more Daniel Radcliffe
timetokill
Banned
Haha I hope this is only the beginning of these types of details
Rockstar is a bit like Nintendo in the sense that they shuffle people around between projects, so it's hard to get a proper read on individual talent. Since the move to an all-hand-on-deck approach to their projects, even the old "this studio did this in the past" method doesn't hold as much water as it used to.
I think the only real reads we have is that North is still the principal GTA developer and Leeds is still the company's big tech wing. It's a safe bet that RDR2 is being headed up by San Diego once more, but I imagine that many more hands will be on that than there were for the first one.
I think the only names we really knew up until now have been the Housers (more Dan as far as development is concerned, since he is Rockstar's head writer) and David Jones, who left to make Ruffian Games right around the time that DMA Design became Rockstar North, and is now with Cloudgine.
I think it's actually an advert for Game of War (or one of its clones).
SalamiAttack
Neo Member
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-04-12-grand-theft-auto-devs-planned-to-leave-take-two
"Leslie Benzies lawsuit says he and the Houser brothers set up an independent company that would still work on publisher's IP
Rockstar
Leslie Benzies' 71-page lawsuit filed against Take-Two, Rockstar, and Sam and Dan Houser today includes a number of revelations, among them that Benzies and the Housers had once planned to go indie (sort of).
The suit describes the formation of Another Game Company in 2009, originally a business entity consisting of Benzies and the Housers that was established with the help of Take-Two to handle distribution of royalty payments to the trio. However, the suit details another purpose to the company.
"AGC was created by the Rockstar Principals to allow them to be able to leave Take-Two, and collectively launch a new independent company, with favorable economic and IP-based rights stemming in large part from Take-Two and Rockstar. The Rockstar Principals would collectively enjoy royalty-free rights to use certain Rockstar and Take-Two intellectual property, and financing arising from the Royalty Plan."
That's no small amount of financing. The suit says that just in the time since he took a sabbatical in 2014, the royalty plan the three developers struck with Take-Two had already paid out $93 million to the Housers, with up to $523 million in additional money as yet unaccounted for.
Benzies' suit says Sam Houser handled the establishment of AGC and all business matters surrounding it, allowing Benzies to be more heads down in development work. The suit claims Houser cultivated Benzies' trust, repeatedly telling him in emails that they were "partners forever," and ending messages with, "Love, Sam."
The arrangement seemed to work out fine until 2014, when Benzies started his six-month sabbatical and his royalty payments stopped. When Benzies asked a Rockstar executive about the issue, the lawsuit claims he was told, "Sam thinks you've had enough."
As for where the relationship soured, a potential source of friction between Sam Houser and Benzies came in late 2013 with the launch of GTA Online. The lawsuit noted that previous GTA games always had Sam Houser's name last, indicating him to be the most significant contributor. For GTA Online, which the suit says "the Houser brothers had little interest in," Benzies put his name last in the credits. A Rockstar executive acting as an intermediary between the two men allegedly told Benzies that Sam Houser was unhappy with the move, suggesting that Benzies "wanted to take over the company."
After Benzies tried to return to work at Rockstar North in April of 2015 and was turned away by the building's office manager, he enlisted legal counsel and sent Take-Two and Rockstar notice that they had breached their legal obligations to him.
"Take-Two and Rockstar responded by making scurrilous allegations, a revenge tactic they had used before with other respected employees, this time deploying it against Mr. Benzies in an attempt to concoct false grounds for termination for Cause and to intimidate him into not pursuing his royalty claims," the suit claims. "Take-Two and Rockstar threatened to use these false charges against Mr. Benzies if he continued to assert his rights. This was a shocking development given that Sam Houser himself had orchestrated and encouraged a company culture involving strip clubs, personal photography of employees in sexually compromising positions, and other conduct grossly in violation of standard workplace norms."
The criticism of Sam Houser's role in the company culture isn't the only attack on the developer within the suit. It also depicted the Houser brothers as "incapable of completing large and complex games without Mr. Benzies' oversight, management and skill..."
"For example, Sam and Dan Houser took the lead on the development of Rockstar's game Red Dead Redemption. Mr. Benzies had no assigned position on the game. As the game's delivery date grew near, Sam Houser urgently reached out to Mr. Benzies in an October 22, 2009 e-mail, writing, 'The ups and downs are VERY extreme. We have to fix this. Quickly. Help! I'm freaking!'
"As Sam Houser reviewed more of the game that he had overseen for many years, he became more desperate writing to Mr. Benzies the very next day, 'This [RDR] is a (recurring) nightmare. But one i/we need to get out of. I have problems with the camera all over the place. So much so, that I can't be rational or specific about it. The darkness!!!' As reflected in his October 24, 2009 e-mail to Mr. Benzies, Sam Houser's desperation was escalating, 'PLEASE help me/us get rdr [Read Dead Redemption] into shape. I am a jabbering wreck right now. I need The Benz!'
"Once Mr. Benzies intervened, the game was finished within a few months, complete and ready for presentation to external publishers such as Sony and Microsoft."
As of this writing, Take-Two had not responded to a request for comment on the suit."
"Leslie Benzies lawsuit says he and the Houser brothers set up an independent company that would still work on publisher's IP
Rockstar
Leslie Benzies' 71-page lawsuit filed against Take-Two, Rockstar, and Sam and Dan Houser today includes a number of revelations, among them that Benzies and the Housers had once planned to go indie (sort of).
The suit describes the formation of Another Game Company in 2009, originally a business entity consisting of Benzies and the Housers that was established with the help of Take-Two to handle distribution of royalty payments to the trio. However, the suit details another purpose to the company.
"AGC was created by the Rockstar Principals to allow them to be able to leave Take-Two, and collectively launch a new independent company, with favorable economic and IP-based rights stemming in large part from Take-Two and Rockstar. The Rockstar Principals would collectively enjoy royalty-free rights to use certain Rockstar and Take-Two intellectual property, and financing arising from the Royalty Plan."
That's no small amount of financing. The suit says that just in the time since he took a sabbatical in 2014, the royalty plan the three developers struck with Take-Two had already paid out $93 million to the Housers, with up to $523 million in additional money as yet unaccounted for.
Benzies' suit says Sam Houser handled the establishment of AGC and all business matters surrounding it, allowing Benzies to be more heads down in development work. The suit claims Houser cultivated Benzies' trust, repeatedly telling him in emails that they were "partners forever," and ending messages with, "Love, Sam."
The arrangement seemed to work out fine until 2014, when Benzies started his six-month sabbatical and his royalty payments stopped. When Benzies asked a Rockstar executive about the issue, the lawsuit claims he was told, "Sam thinks you've had enough."
As for where the relationship soured, a potential source of friction between Sam Houser and Benzies came in late 2013 with the launch of GTA Online. The lawsuit noted that previous GTA games always had Sam Houser's name last, indicating him to be the most significant contributor. For GTA Online, which the suit says "the Houser brothers had little interest in," Benzies put his name last in the credits. A Rockstar executive acting as an intermediary between the two men allegedly told Benzies that Sam Houser was unhappy with the move, suggesting that Benzies "wanted to take over the company."
After Benzies tried to return to work at Rockstar North in April of 2015 and was turned away by the building's office manager, he enlisted legal counsel and sent Take-Two and Rockstar notice that they had breached their legal obligations to him.
"Take-Two and Rockstar responded by making scurrilous allegations, a revenge tactic they had used before with other respected employees, this time deploying it against Mr. Benzies in an attempt to concoct false grounds for termination for Cause and to intimidate him into not pursuing his royalty claims," the suit claims. "Take-Two and Rockstar threatened to use these false charges against Mr. Benzies if he continued to assert his rights. This was a shocking development given that Sam Houser himself had orchestrated and encouraged a company culture involving strip clubs, personal photography of employees in sexually compromising positions, and other conduct grossly in violation of standard workplace norms."
The criticism of Sam Houser's role in the company culture isn't the only attack on the developer within the suit. It also depicted the Houser brothers as "incapable of completing large and complex games without Mr. Benzies' oversight, management and skill..."
"For example, Sam and Dan Houser took the lead on the development of Rockstar's game Red Dead Redemption. Mr. Benzies had no assigned position on the game. As the game's delivery date grew near, Sam Houser urgently reached out to Mr. Benzies in an October 22, 2009 e-mail, writing, 'The ups and downs are VERY extreme. We have to fix this. Quickly. Help! I'm freaking!'
"As Sam Houser reviewed more of the game that he had overseen for many years, he became more desperate writing to Mr. Benzies the very next day, 'This [RDR] is a (recurring) nightmare. But one i/we need to get out of. I have problems with the camera all over the place. So much so, that I can't be rational or specific about it. The darkness!!!' As reflected in his October 24, 2009 e-mail to Mr. Benzies, Sam Houser's desperation was escalating, 'PLEASE help me/us get rdr [Read Dead Redemption] into shape. I am a jabbering wreck right now. I need The Benz!'
"Once Mr. Benzies intervened, the game was finished within a few months, complete and ready for presentation to external publishers such as Sony and Microsoft."
As of this writing, Take-Two had not responded to a request for comment on the suit."
Super Rookie
Member
Seems like Agent never had the Benz...
It wasn't noir but darkness!
It wasn't noir but darkness!
SalamiAttack
Neo Member
SalamiAttack
Neo Member
Consumer
Member
The Housers may be stupidly ambitious & meticulous, but they're not stupid. If Benzies was even half as crucial as this email makes him out to be, there's no way they'd let him go.
Clearly the email was hyperbole, or they were in a slump and things changed, or they found someone/something to replace Benzies, etc.
The guy did ask for a ridiculously large amount of money. I'd be interested to know the scope of his contributions.
Clearly the email was hyperbole, or they were in a slump and things changed, or they found someone/something to replace Benzies, etc.
The guy did ask for a ridiculously large amount of money. I'd be interested to know the scope of his contributions.
Or, you know, they had $450 million in bonuses to split three ways and figured they'd rather have another $75 million each than not.
So Benzies championed GTA Online, wanted appropriate credit, and the Housers' were miffed that he took action in that direction?
sammyCYBORG
Member
Pretty funny.
You have to imagine that all Rockstar games post GTA 3 have been chaos in terms of development. Huge worlds, more complex stories, increased detail, more gameplay features.
I know they say all games come together late, but I bet a Rockstar game comes together very late.
You have to imagine that all Rockstar games post GTA 3 have been chaos in terms of development. Huge worlds, more complex stories, increased detail, more gameplay features.
I know they say all games come together late, but I bet a Rockstar game comes together very late.
Heavy_D206
Member
Ugh.. I hate to see stories like this.
Money and ego getting in the way of talented people making amazing products.
I hope Benzies and the Houser's can put this behind them and continue to have a working relationship.
I just don't think GTA can stay as consistent without all of their input.
Money and ego getting in the way of talented people making amazing products.
I hope Benzies and the Houser's can put this behind them and continue to have a working relationship.
I just don't think GTA can stay as consistent without all of their input.
Yiiiiiiiiiiikes
Also laughing out loud at "the darkness!!!" holy shit. This is probably gonna get settled I imagine.
L O L
Wow wow wow, if Jones ever read this I'm sure his head will explode. Ruffian was created by some of the former Crackdown team members of Realtime Worlds, but I'm not sure it was with Jones' blessings
Really insightful. Thanks!
Wat.
Kinda explains most of GTA.
PsychoSoldier
Banned
Maybe the Housers write terrible people well because they too are terrible people.
Is from an ad for that game Game of War.
Here, there is also another one:
EDIT: Unless you are talking about the train in which case that is the cover of a rock album called... The Darkenss. LOL
I believe in a thing called Benz
Oh right, got the teams confused. Thanks for the clarification.Wow wow wow, if Jones ever read this I'm sure his head will explode. Ruffian was created by some of the former Crackdown team members of Realtime Worlds, but I'm not sure it was with Jones' blessings
BreezyLimbo
Banned
Now that you mention it...yeah it does actually.
Romars202129
Member
Sam Houser seems like he'd be a fun dude to know, no sarcasm intended.
Edit : maybe not with that sexual harrasment stuff.
Edit : maybe not with that sexual harrasment stuff.