Leslie Benzies, former president of Rockstar North, has secured $110 million in Series D funding for his studio Build A Rocket Boy. The funds will be used to develop a trilogy of new “flagship” products.
Benzies has a track record as the lead developer for Grand Theft Auto II through V, which has undoubtedly influenced investor confidence in his future ventures.
Funding for Three Projects
The substantial $110 million round of funding was led by RedBird Capital Partners, with additional support from NetEase Games, Galaxy Interactive, Endeavor, Alignment Growth, Woodline Partners LP, and GTAM Partners. Following the investment, Julia Wittlin from RedBird Capital will join the board of directors at Build A Rocket Boy.
The investment will support three projects: user-generated Arcadia tools, the action-adventure game MindsEye, and the highly anticipated open-world experience and creation tool Everywhere.
In particular, MindsEye will be launched as an experience within Everywhere and will serve as a game creation platform and sandbox similar to Roblox, allowing users to generate their own content.
Benzies stated, “We are excited to partner with RedBird and our other investors to help us launch Everywhere, MindsEye, and what we believe will be game-changing UGC design tools in Arcadia. RedBird’s expertise in building successful entertainment and media platforms will be invaluable and makes them a perfect partner.”
“I started Build A Rocket Boy so that I could continue to share the stories I love with players and give them a place to create and share. We believe in a future where game creation is put in the hands of the players, and we will empower them with the tools to help shape this vision with us,” he added.
Wittlin added, “We are pleased to partner with and support exceptional talent like Leslie and the Build A Rocket Boy team as they build the next genre-defining game studio and entertainment platform.”
The recent release of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto remastered trilogy on Netflix, originally produced by Benzies, has been enjoying a resurgence of success.
