Success is something that everyone strives for, especially in the world of business. It doesn’t matter what kind of company you have; you want it to succeed. It doesn’t have to be a “multi-billion-dollar entity” within a few years, or something that gets lots of awards for what it does. It just has to keep going. For video game developers, the success they seek is making games that gamers, and the dev team, can be proud of, and when you have a certain legendary figure heading up a new team and promising that a new game, Mindseye, will be one of the most innovative things ever, you kind of have to give them the benefit of the doubt.
In a special piece by BBC, they did a profile of the rise and fall of the developer Build A Rocket Boy, and its leader, Leslie Benzies, who had made a name for himself off the Grand Theft Auto franchise, which he was a key figure in, especially for the 5th entry, which is one of the best-selling games of all time. He left Rockstar Games after a dispute and then made his own company.
Due to the “prestige” attached to his name, many flocked to his new company, which quickly ballooned to over 400 employees and millions upon millions in investments. Yet, when it came to the games they were making…they were few and far between. In fact, when the team DID have something that they felt could be incredible, it was Leslie Benzies who decided to make a massive shift and instead do Mindseye.
As you can guess, this didn’t go well, and Benzies was the main reason for that. Not only would the company head continually make changes with the game, but he would point out things that he felt “needed to be fixed first,” which became so numerous that they were dubbed “Leslie Tickets.”
Eventually, the game got so rushed that when the release date was announced, a massive “crunch” had to occur, which pushed the team to the brink. Then, when the game flopped hard earlier this year, instead of admitting his own fault and saying they “should’ve done something simpler,” he blamed “saboteurs” and said he would root them out of the company.
So, what does this profile highlight? That just because someone did well with one franchise, doesn’t mean they’ll make magic with the next one. We’ve seen that with other famous developers, too. It also highlights the dangers of celebrity, even in the gaming space, because now, many people have lost their jobs due to one man’s “madness,” and he’s probably still got lots of money tucked away for himself.
