You may recall back in January of this year that Leslie Benzies, the former President of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar North, left after 15 years with the company. Benzies' departure was significant and, from the outside looking in, surprising. His fingerprints were on the majority of Rockstar's major projects, including every 3D entry in the Grand Theft Auto series. Reportedly, Benzies' exit came after a lengthy sabbatical, which began back in September of 2014. When Benzies' exit was confirmed via Rockstar, the company painted this as Benzies' decision. Now Benzies is challenging that assertion as part of a lawsuit announced today, in which the former producer is asking for $150 million in unpaid royalties.

According to the announcement, Benzies' sabbatical was part of a "lengthy deception" allegedly designed to freeze Benzies out of royalty payments. Back in 2008, when Take-Two announced a profit-sharing initiative for key members of the publisher's team, Benzies was the only one called out by name alongside the Houser brothers--ostensibly painting him on equal ground with the Housers--but details of the suit assert otherwise, and during the sabbatical period, Benzies stopped receiving payments altogether.

The announcement also alleges that Benzies was prevented from returning to work following his sabbatical, which runs counter to Rockstar's statement on his exit from the company.

“When attempting to resume his duties upon conclusion of his sabbatical on April 1, 2015, Mr. Benzies found himself unable to enter the Rockstar North office because his facilities access device had been deactivated. After being let inside by building security, Mr. Benzies was then ordered to leave by the Rockstar North office manager without reason.”

Take-Two, Rockstar, Rockstar North Ltd, Sam Houser and Dan Houser are all named in the suit, but special mention is made regarding "a lengthy deception by Sam Houser," who allegedly sent numerous emails to Benzies intended to reassure him of his security within the partnership, before ultimately exiling him following his extended absence.

For its part, Rockstar has already filed a countersuit, alleging that Benzies isn't owed any additional payments, citing a breach of contract. Rockstar claims that in March of 2015, Benzies sent an email demanding "exact financial parity with his co-Principals, prospectively and retroactively as of the Effective Date of the 2009 Royalty Plan," something Rockstar believes Benzies had no right to do, as per the terms of the profit sharing agreement.

The one thing both parties seem to agree on is that they had been involved in a mediation process prior to the dual lawsuit filings, one that ultimately proved unsuccessful. Benzies' legal team claims that Rockstar's statement on Benzies' exit back in January came during this mediation period, and was "out-of-bounds and inaccurate.”

It's too early to know exactly where these suits are headed, but the level of grievance being expressed here gives one the impression that a settlement isn't likely to be on the immediate horizon. We'll keep you apprised of any developments as this story unfolds. For more details on today's filings, check out GameSpot's story.

Man. This looks like it's gonna be long and ugly.

I need the Benz!

Looks like some greedy corporate backstabbing is going on. We'll probably never get the full story, but it is a shame that this is taking place within one of my favorite video game developers.

Woof.

...Wish i had $150 million in unpaid royalties...

He's got a great rap name.

I NEED THE BENZ.

Rockstar taught me that the best way to handle this sort of problem is by a Serbian with a baseball bat.

Rockstar can't go a year without some kind of employee scandal.

eeesh.

"Surviving is winning, Franklin, everything else is bullshit ... Whatever it takes, kid: survive."

A lot of lawyers are about to get very rich

It's obvious where rockstars primary focus is after GTA 5, I doubt we'll see an expansion because they're pumping out content for multiplayer (yay shark cards...)

I hate to see them go this route.

gruuuuugh

@aethelred: I miss Niko's can-do attitude.

@homelessbird: Yeah, I don't see R* as the kind of company to back down from something like this.

Now if they had only made Uniracers 2 instead of farting about with GTA this would have never happened.

(I'm just being absurd.)

profit sharing with key members. lol. work those underlings to the bone and profit share on the side. douche bags making games about characters who are douche bags. shocking.

Normally, I would say "why would anyone work for this company in a non-executive role" but even the execs seem to be getting screwed at Rockstar.

Seriously.

I'll take 1 500 $ please.

I am looking forward to a BBC documentary sequel on this.

uh oh, here we go.

Hard to see rockstar winning this one.

Daniel Radcliffe in a role that won't surprise you. Coming this Fall.

@slag: NOBODY WINS

Sending someone out on vacation and quietly deactivating their security clearance sounds like something that'd happen in a drama or comedy of some sort.

Fax mentis incendium gloriae, et cetera, et cetera. Memo bis punitor delicatum! It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal! You get nothing! You lose! Good day sir!

every moderately successful company is involved with some shady shit.

Meanwhile the barely compensated peons toil on thanklessly to make all this a reality...

Former Rockstar North President Leslie Benzies, portrayed here by David Tennant as the Purple Man

I would be happy even getting less than a percent of that

very true

at first glance i was on benzies' side on this because he was an employee, of sorts, of rockstar, but really this is just wealthy executives suing wealthy executives, isnt it? so who cares lol

Can i recommend Jack Thompson?

Rich folks fighting over who can get even richer.

'Kay.

This along with the Lindsay Lohan thing, Take-Two are deep in court stuff.

This would suck if this is how the R* empire crumbles.

SCOOPS NAVARRO!

@onemanarmyy: I believe Thompson was disbarred.

So ... can someone point me to where the sign up link for guest writers is? I really would love to be on call as the giant bomb attorney to write about this stuff. They do a decent job here but obviously they are not lawyers. And @dudeglove you can certainly get this rich without screwing someone over. Not sure here yet they did. All about what the contract says.

Putting a big name out on "vacation?" Looks like Rockstar was using... The Konami Code.

This is going to be a tough one.

@silver-streak: true, but i just want to keep the Rockstar family together in court . :)

Looks like Benzies stole Akiyama's suit! Bastard.

seems like capitalism is a very effective medium for those greedy enough to compromise ethics over profit

Considering the content of the GTA games, its almost poetic.

The video game industry has gotten really ugly over the years. But that's the truth for any business that generations millions of dollars. Nature of the beast.