Build a Rocket Boya Scottish-based game development company founded by one of the former lead developers behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, announced today that it has raised $110 million in a Series D funding round.
The funding comes ahead of the much-anticipated launch of the company’s first titles and immersive open-world platformer.
Leslie Benzies he is perhaps best known as its former president Rockstar Northleading the development of his great success Grand Theft Auto series starting with the third installment in 2001, through every subsequent title up to leaving the company in 2016 after a 17-month leave. In the same year, Benzies took legal action against his former employer, claiming that he had effectively been kicked out and denied a share of the game’s profits. A significant part of complaints they were ousted in court two years laterwith the parties finally in a confidential settlement in 2019.
In much of this, Benzies was laying the groundwork for his next major project.
Leslie Benzies Image credits: Austin Hargrave / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
Originally called Royal Circus Games (named after a famous address in the company’s hometown of Edinburgh), lawyers representing Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive argued that the acronym “RCG” was strikingly similar to Rockstar Games (RSG) and was deliberately designed to cause confusion. Whether the name change was a direct result of this category is unclear, but Royal Circus Games transformed into Build a Rocket Boy in 2018 and continued raise at least $40 million in financing the development and commercialization of a range of new titles.
While these have yet to see the official light of day, the company has teased a new immersive open-world platformer called Everywhere, which was billed as a “community-driven game” where players can build their own world — in what could perhaps be interpreted as something similar to Roblox. And then there’s MindsEyetouted as a “story-driven action-adventure.”
Both titles are set to launch “in the near future,” while the company is also introducing a suite of user-generated content (UGC) design tools it calls Arcadia.
“I started Build A Rocket Boy so I could continue to share the stories I love with players and give them a place to create and share,” Benzies said in a Press release. “We believe in a future where game creation is put in the hands of players, and we’re empowering them with the tools to help shape that vision with us.”
Build a Rocket Boy’s Series D round was led by a New York-based investment firm RedBird Capital Partnerswith participation from among others NetEase Games, Galaxy Interactive, Endeavor, Alignment Growth, Woodline Partners, GTAM Partners.
In addition to its Edinburgh headquarters, Build a Rocket Boy has opened additional development hubs in Budapest (Hungary) and Montpellier (France).
