1 Christopher J. Bakes Allen C. Wasserman Casey B. Howard LOCKE LORD LLP 200 Vesey Street, 20

th

 Floor New York, New York 10281 (212) 415-8600 cbakes@lockelord.com awasserman@lockelord.com choward@lockelord.com

 Attorneys for Plaintiff Leslie Benzies

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COMPLAINT

Plaintiff Leslie Benzies (“Mr. Benzies” or “Plaintiff”), by and through his attorneys, Locke Lord LLP, for his complaint against Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (“Take-Two”), Rockstar Games, Inc. (“Rockstar”), Rockstar North Ltd. (“Rockstar North”) (collectively referred to as “companies” or “Companies”), Dan Houser and Sam

FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 04/12/2016 09:24 AM 

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 2 Houser (all collectively referred to as “Defendants” ), upon knowledge and belief as to his own acts and upon information and belief as to the acts of all others, states as follows:

PARTIES

1.

 

Plaintiff is a citizen of the United Kingdom with a residence in Los Angeles, California. 2.

 

Defendant Take-Two is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business located at 622 Broadway, New York, New York. 3.

 

Defendant Rockstar is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business located at 622 Broadway, New York, New York. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Take-Two and is a “label” or “brand” through which Take-Two markets its video-games and other products. 4.

 

Defendant Rockstar North is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Take-Two with its principal place of business located at 1 Greenside Row, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. 5.

 

Defendant Sam Houser is an individual residing in New York State with his place of business at Rockstar, located at 622 Broadway, New York, New York. 6.

 

Defendant Dan Houser is an individual residing in New York State with his place of business at Rockstar, located at 622 Broadway, New York, New York.

JURISDICTION AND VENUE

7.

 

The Court has personal jurisdiction over the parties under Section 3.5 of the applicable “2009 Royalty Plan,” and Section 8(i) of the Amended and Restated Employment Agreement between Plaintiff and Rockstar North, dated as of September 12,

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 3 2012, pursuant to which the parties submitted to the exclusive personal jurisdiction of any state or federal court sitting in New York County in the State of New York. 8.

 

Venue is proper pursuant to New York Civil Practice Law and Rules Section 501 because Section 3.5 of the 2009 Royalty Plan and Section 8(i) of the Amended and Restated Employment Agreement fixed the venue as New York County.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE Introduction and Overview

 9.

 

Mr. Benzies grew up in Elgin, Scotland with the desire to create amazing video games. He started programming at age 11 and by age 12 had created his first video game. 10.

 

Mr. Benzies’ love for video games continued into adulthood, causing him to strive to create better and better games by pushing the boundaries of video game technology. After completing development of games such as Space Station Silicon Valley, Mr. Benzies turned his attention to the Grand Theft Auto (“GTA”) video game series. Led by Mr. Benzies, the close-knit team he assembled at DMA Design Ltd. (“DMA”) created Grand Theft Auto 3 (“GTA 3”), the game that revolutionized the video game industry. 11.

 

Mr. Benzies was thereafter named president of Rockstar North, the lead development studio of Rockstar Games, and went on to lead the development of GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas, GTA 4, GTA 5 and GTA Online. 12.

 

Given the world-record-breaking success of these GTA games, and Mr. Benzies’ important contributions to that success, Defendants recognized the importance of retaining Mr. Benzies to produce and design future iterations of the GTA franchise. To ensure this, Defendants offered Mr. Benzies the opportunity to be a “Rockstar Principal,”

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