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Red Dead Redemption stories emerge from court documents, including Houser panicking

Q

Quentyn

Member
Brendan Sinclair from Gamesindustry.biz is tweeting details from the lawsuit.

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https://twitter.com/BrendanSinclair/status/719927316466561024
 
Copy bump.

This is a fun side of the Housers we haven't gotten to see since the GameCube era when they did interviews about things like their Mario Kart fandom.

If anyone finds more, please share.
 
"I need the Benz"

I did not know that this phrase would make my day, but it did.

This lawsuit business will be interesting, if only to bring some light into the very secretive/quiet way Rockstar conducts their work.
 
Gipsy Danger said:
Did Benzies have a big part in GTAV? I assume he did but I thought that game was very weak but RDR is pretty fantastic.
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He's the guy that ran Rockstar North and was generally the head on the series along with the Housers.

That's why they wanted him to help on Red Dead, due to his success in helming GTA.
 
Strife In a Teacup said:
Yeah, what does that mean for Take Two? Could that impact Civilization/X-Com?
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For Take-Two? Nothing. They'll pay him his money in a settlement.

The bigger concern is Rockstar managing their games with Leslie Benzies. They'll have to find someone else who can translate Houser into game design, so the next game might take longer than expected to come out.
 
Nirolak said:
He's the guy that ran Rockstar North and was generally the head on the series along with the Housers.

That's why they wanted him to help on Red Dead, due to his success in helming GTA.
Click to expand...

Oh right, of course. RDR was Rockstar San Diego. Do the Housers still work out of North or are they all over?
 
Wow, kudos to "The Benz" for taking what appears to be a complete mess and turning it into one of the best games of the last generation within a few months.
 
Gipsy Danger said:
Oh right, of course. RDR was Rockstar San Diego. Do the Housers still work out of North or are they all over?
Click to expand...

They work out of New York and oversee all of Rockstar's games.

That said, basically all of Rockstar works on one project at a time outside of small teams investigating the future of each franchise, so it's not really separate studios on separate projects anymore.
 
Nirolak said:
For Take-Two? Nothing. They'll pay him his money in a settlement.

The bigger concern is Rockstar managing their games with Leslie Benzies. They'll have to find someone else who can translate Houser into game design, so the next game might take longer than expected to come out.
Click to expand...
GTA6 for PS6 confirmed? I mean if V took 4 years...
 
Benz, apply directly to the game development.

Benz, apply directly to the game development.

Benz, apply directly to the game development.
 
The unauthorized "biography" about GTA and Rockstar was an awesome read. It said that if R* North employees came back from lunch carrying doggy bags from a restaurant Sam Houser didn't like and he happened to spot them, he'd make them throw them in the trash.
 
Nirolak said:
For Take-Two? Nothing. They'll pay him his money in a settlement.

The bigger concern is Rockstar managing their games with Leslie Benzies. They'll have to find someone else who can translate Houser into game design, so the next game might take longer than expected to come out.
Click to expand...

I guess that's what I was getting at. If the next GTA/RDR takes longer and gets a less than favorable reception, couldn't that impact Take Two directly and effect other companies downstream like Firaxis? I know I know, just paranoid thinking.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., also known as Take-Two, is an American multinational publisher, developer, and distributor of video games and video game peripherals. Take-Two wholly owns Rockstar Games, Firaxis Games and 2K Games
Click to expand...
 
Just so everyone understands, this statement of fact is from the Complaint filed by Benzies' lawyers, so clearly it is going to be one-sided in favor of Benzies.

I'm not saying Benzies didn't have a lot to do with RDR's success, I'm just saying take these statements with a grain of salt, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
 
Leslie Benzies was such a big part of what made Rockstar the phenomenon that it is today.

I really hope they find (of already have, since this seems to have happened almost a year ago) someone ad capable as he was, otherwise I fear the Rockstar games will take even longer to be done, and with a significant quality drop.
 
TangoAlphaLima said:
Just so everyone understands, this statement of fact is from the Complaint filed by Benzies' lawyers, so clearly it is going to be one-sided in favor of Benzies.

I'm not saying Benzies didn't have a lot to do with RDR's success, I'm just saying take these statements with a grain of salt, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
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These statements apparently cite emails, so unless there's fudging, the reality is that Housers did beg Benzies to salvage the project.
 
Strife In a Teacup said:
I guess that's what I was getting at. If the next GTA/RDR takes longer and gets a less than favorable reception, couldn't that impact Take Two directly and effect other companies downstream like Firaxis? I know I know, just paranoid thinking.
Click to expand...

I don't think people really associate GTA with the other 2K properties.

The others are like Civilization and NBA 2K and Bioshock, not exactly bound to the hip of GTA.

It will definitely hit the publishers money banks but don't think the other IPs would be really affected.
 
Strife In a Teacup said:
I guess that's what I was getting at. If the next GTA/RDR takes longer and gets a less than favorable reception, couldn't that impact Take Two directly and effect other companies downstream like Firaxis? I know I know, just paranoid thinking.
Click to expand...

They've been operating at a profit without Rockstar releases for the first time in a long time recently, so they should be generally fine.

They're also large enough that they're not going to have any issues getting capital for projects as small as Firaxis titles.
 
Nirolak said:
They work out of New York and oversee all of Rockstar's games.

That said, basically all of Rockstar works on one project at a time outside of small teams investigating the future of each franchise, so it's not really separate studios on separate projects anymore.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Max Payne 3 was the first game they put out that was credited to the entire Rockstar banner. I think every studio outside of North had a hand in that game, which started out initially as Rockstar Vancouver on their own.

Even LA Noire had a pretty big Rockstar integration by the time it finished. Leeds helped get it out the door (along with the PC port) and Houser wrote the scripts for the side-missions, which is why they tended to be a bit more on the wacky side compared to the main story.
 
What I take from this is at least Houser doesn't think of himself as some infallible designer and recognizes when he needs help or his game is fucked.
 
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