The former head of GTA is convinced that the gaming industry must become smarter and better understand what gamers really want
Who is this about? Leslie Benzies served as the president of Rockstar North until 2016 and was the lead producer for the development of the GTA series. Under his leadership, titles like GTA San Andreas, Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, GTA IV, and GTA V, as well as Red Dead Redemption, were created.
Meanwhile, Benzies has launched his own studio called “Build A Rocket Boy” and is developing his own shooter called “MindsEye”, which is set to be released on Steam in the summer of 2025.
In an interview with the English-speaking gaming magazine “Edge”, Benzies also discussed the gaming industry and the many layoffs and studio closures that the industry has experienced in recent years.
Here you can see a trailer for Benzies’ own shooter MondsEye:
The gaming industry must better understand what players want
What is the problem? According to Benzies, the large selection of games is a problem. He stated in the interview that the many studio closures and layoffs are a consequence of the extensive game selection:
“The day doesn’t get any longer, there aren’t more people playing video games, so there is a limited user base. There are so many games, and I think we’ve felt the repercussions of that over the last year in the form of closures and layoffs.” (via GamesRadar)
What is the solution? Benzies explained that the gaming industry needs to get smarter and better understand what gamers really want: “Nowadays, you have to look at your analytics. You have to see what people want to play. I think we as an industry need to get smarter to know: ‘Do people really want to play this?'”
Gaming industry facing waves of layoffs for years
This is the situation in the gaming industry: In recent months and years, there have been several major waves of layoffs at different developers and publishers. For instance, Bungie parted ways with 450 employees in July 2024.
Previously, Microsoft already laid off a total of 1,900 employees in January 2024. Affected were, among others, Activision-Blizzard and ZeniMax Media (Bethesda Softworks).
In February 2025, Warner Bros. Games announced the closure of the developer studios Monolith Productions (Middle-earth) and Arkane Studios (Dishonored, Wolfenstein). And even with the new hero shooter Marvel’s Rivals, which enjoys strong player numbers and great popularity, employees were laid off: The company fires developers of Marvel Rivals, despite huge successes due to ‘optimizing development efficiency’
