What just happened? Former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies has raised over $42 million for his intriguing-sounding upcoming game, Everywhere. His ‘Build a Rocket Boy’ studio, which he founded in 2018, secured the money from the latest round of funding.
According to a report in The Telegraph, investment came from a variety of sources, including Chinese company Netease, which purchased a minority stake in Destiny 2 developer Bungie back in 2018. Other investors include Makers Fund and New York cryptocurrency investor Galaxy Interactive.
Benzies went on sabbatical while at Rockstar North on September 1, 2014, following the launch of GTA V. At the start of 2016, he officially quit the company he joined as a programmer 15 years earlier.
https://t.co/znPJv9RcIK pic.twitter.com/1rUatxuobT
— Everywhere (@everywhere_game) December 19, 2018
Shortly after his departure from Rockstar, Benzies sued the firm for $150 million over a 2009 profit-sharing agreement he signed when he was made a Rockstar principal for his work as producer on the Grand Theft Auto series. Benzies claimed that Rockstar co-founders Sam and Dan Houser were being given more money from the scheme at his expense. The case was finally settled last year.
In 2017, we heard about Build a Rocket Boy’s first game, an open-world sci-fi called Everywhere. Speaking about the project three years ago, Benzies said, “Everywhere has a lot of traditional game mechanics, but we’re going for something more that draws inspiration from, well, everywhere.”
“Players are getting smarter and require more from their games, and we want players to have the real freedom to live in our worlds in the ways they want to. We’re aiming to offer a huge variety of game modes and styles that not only tell our stories but also enable players to live in the identities and adventures they most want to explore.”
Everywhere is still a long way off, but it seems that finding funding for the game isn’t a problem.
https://www.techspot.com/news/86919-former-rockstar-north-president-raises-42-million-upcoming.html
