Leslie Benzies (GTA Big Wig) sues TT for $150M in unpaid royalties, ousted by Housers

Schnozberry said:
The more I read about video games the more it becomes obvious that the business is a level of shady normally reserved for Pro Wrestling and Hollywood.
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pj said:
If you had, say, $50 million in the bank and believed someone owed you $150 million, you'd say "nah thats cool, you keep it"?
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I'm saying exactly the opposite.
Why they (TT, R*, Housers) felt the need to screw over Benzies to not pay him royalties, when they are already doing extremely well.
Risking of having to pay more with the resulting lawsuit.
 
GTA is one of the biggest money makers on the entire planet. I can't believe they'd seriously try and fuck over the talent behind it like this over money. You're all rich as fuck, why ruin a good thing?
 
Woo-Fu said:
Sounds like there is some bad blood. When you're pissed off it isn't about how much you'll gain it is about how much you'll deny the other guy. I'd say depriving somebody of 150m in royalties is one hell of a "fuck you" if you can get away with it.

I will advise anybody who is going on a corporate-endorsed sabbatical to make sure you have everything, and I mean everything in writing. Over that amount of time a lot of things can change, like, oh say, how the company perceives your value as an employee. You're not going to win a "What have you done for me lately?" contest.
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Again, it's not Benzies' actions puzzling me, but R*s, TT's and Houser's greed.
 
UrbanRats said:
I'm saying exactly the opposite.
Why they (TT, R*, Housers) felt the need to screw over Benzies to not pay him royalties, when they are already doing extremely well.
Risking of having to pay more with the resulting lawsuit.
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There is no legal evidence that Benzies is owed anything. No one in this thread knows the details of his contract and if he broke it. That's what court is for.

Just because someone files a lawsuit doesn't mean that they are right. Though in this case he may be
 
Obliterator said:
There is no legal evidence that Benzies is owed anything. No one in this thread knows the details of his contract and if he broke it. That's what court is for.

Just because someone files a lawsuit doesn't mean that they are right. Though in this case he may be
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Ofcourse, I'm saying assuming he's telling the truth.
For the sake of argument, if you will.
 
Hmm..So even if they were to give him royalties possibly owed...it's still at the discretion of Sam Houser of how much if any? lol
22. Sam Houser, Dan Houser, and Benzies are defined as the Rockstar Principals under the Royalty Plan.

23. The Royalty Plan provides that a three-member Committee has exclusive and binding decision-making authority over royalty allocations.

24.Nowhere does the Royalty Plan provide that Benzies is entitled to a minimum allocation or require equal allocations among Benzies and any other person.

25. The Royalty Plan further provides that the Committee’s determinations are final and binding, and precludes any person covered by it from making any claim against the Company or any other party on account of his or its eligibility or ineligibility to receive royalties or his allocable share of any royalties.

26. The Royalty Plan also contains Termination of Employment provisions which govern royalties payable in the event that a Rockstar Principal’s employment is terminated, depending upon the circumstances of termination.

27. Benzies resigned without Good Reason, and the Royalty Plan therefore provides that he is not entitled to any royalties not already accrued and payable to him prior to termination.

28. Even had Benzies been terminated without Cause or for Good Reason, the Royalty Plan provides that any amounts payable to Benzies would be awarded, if at all, in the sole discretion of Sam Houser, who could determine, as was his right under the Royalty Plan, not to allocate royalties to Benzies.
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UrbanRats said:
Ofcourse, I'm saying assuming he's telling the truth.
For the sake of argument, if you will.
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I hear you but for all we know he broke the terms of his contract and isn't owed anything.

I'm just cautioning against people throwing out words like "greed" or condemnation for Take Two before a court weighs in on the case. It shouldn't be assumed he is correct just for filing a lawsuit
 
UrbanRats said:
Again, it's not Benzies' actions puzzling me, but R*s, TT's and Houser's greed.
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And that is what I just explained to you, it isn't (just)greed. It is wanting to poke Benzies in the eye with the sharpest stick available---which appears to be made out of 150 million dollars in royalties. All speculation, of course.

You're trying to figure out a coldly logical reasoning behind them wanting another 150m to put on their money pile when it could be simply that they angrily don't want Benzies to put 150m on top of his own pile.
 
We only speculating what Benzies role was for RDR. Most likely it might have been delayed.

But you could see from Housers emails that he would never have released it in that state. They just needed someone to lead the team.

Obviously he will be a big miss. But at the end of the day it is the Houser brothers who are the key people.
 
Obliterator said:
Honest question but how can someone not go to work for over a year and expect for their keys to work and still be employed? I'm not saying it's OK he was fired or not but truly how is that possible?

Edit - looks like it was 7 months not a year. Still not sure how that all worked out though
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Because he was the main force behind the brand that sold Over 200 Million copies world wide. Rockstar wouldn't be in this position without him.
 
Obliterator said:
I mean I hear you but do you think the rest of Rockstar North got that kind of time off? All the programmers who probably put in just as many hours? Something tells me no considering they had a giant title to support.

I'm not saying the guy deserved to be fired just commenting on the work environment, which has been widely reported is absolutely awful at Rockstar
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This is nothing special and you can take sabbatical off time at some places that have that policy and it's awesome.
 
Simply Sami said:
We only speculating what Benzies role was for RDR. Most likely it might have been delayed.

But you could see from Housers emails that he would never have released it in that state. They just needed someone to lead the team.

Obviously he will be a big miss. But at the end of the day it is the Houser brothers who are the key people.
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Not according to that document and emails. They needed The Benz!! LOL
 
Simo said:
Obviously he will be a big miss. But at the end of the day it is the Houser brothers who are the key people.
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I think creatively you may be mostly right, but it seems like these big games can be technical / logistical nightmares. Seems like Benzies was key in bringing all that together.
 
I think this is bad news for the future. We have all heard stories about how brutal it is to work at Rockstar but they still pushed out quality games, now who knows what will happen.
 
When reading these court documents, please remember that they are intended to present the plaintiff in the best possible light and the defendant in the worst possible light.

That being said, is anyone truly shocked that the Housers are kinda scummy? These are guys who pride themselves in making games with the most morally reprehensible characters possible this side of Kratos.
 
Simply Sami said:
Obviously he will be a big miss. But at the end of the day it is the Houser brothers who are the key people.
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Benzies has always been one of the key people, just not very public facing till recently. Everyone has ideas for games, not everyone can make them a reality (which is where he comes in).
 
funkystudent said:
This could be huge.

Both monetarily for The Benz and for giving us a look inside the madhouse that is Rockstar Games.
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and for giving us what will probably be a new internet meme by the end of the day.

WE NEED THE BENZ

RodrigoDorta said:
Games from rockstar are like sausages. They are great, but if want to know how they are made......
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A perfect description of what appears to be the Rock* experience.
 
Obliterator said:
I hear you but for all we know he broke the terms of his contract and isn't owed anything.

I'm just cautioning against people throwing out words like "greed" or condemnation for Take Two before a court weighs in on the case. It shouldn't be assumed he is correct just for filing a lawsuit
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You're right.
 
Screaming Meat said:
Benzies has always been one of the key people, just not very public facing till recently. Everyone has ideas for games, not everyone can make them a reality (which is where he comes in).
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He was key. But he was just one person.

It's not like a whole host of other key Rockstar employees have left. A lot of the founding members and Imran Sarwar are still there.
 
What...am I missing here? He's eligible for bonuses but then 2 months during his sabbatical and then they stop it?
Benzies’ Sabbatical, the Termination of Benzies’ Employment Relationship, and Benzies’ Demands for Royalties
30.

By letter agreement dated August 15, 2014 (“Letter Agreement”), Rockstar North and Benzies agreed that he would take a sabbatical from September 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015. 31.

The Letter Agreement provided that while on sabbatical, Benzies would remain a Rockstar North employee, his Employment Agreement would remain in effect except as expressly stated in the Letter Agreement, and Benzies would continue to receive his full salary. 32.

The Letter Agreement further stated that during the sabbatical term, Benzies would “continue to be eligible for any bonus, incentive compensation, other discretionary payments, or restricted equity awards from the Company in accordance with the Company’s standard policies and any applicable agreement(s) between you and the Company.” (Emphasis Added). 33.

In December 2014, the Committee determined not to allocate royalties to Benzies.
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i blame that bbc documentary with harry potter

edit: their desire to stay out of the limelight means i respect their work and what they've done for the industry (i guess thats maybe what they want) but dont really feel anything about this other than hoping it doesn't negatively impact their future games
 
There's a stage during development on every single game, near the end, where everything looks broken, everyones freaking out, then all of the sudden it all comes together. But it's incredibly important to have guys like this to wrangle in everything.
 
I am guessing they agreed he'd take a sabbatical, they wanted him back early, he declined, it got personal and they stopped his royalties based on the agreement.
 
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