Activision and Rockstar heads are in latest Epstein Files

The US Department of Justice continued its slow release of files related to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein on Friday. Among the many names named in the collection of documents are some notable video game industry professionals.

The document dump includes all sorts of evidence gathered by the US DOJ — they say, “The Department erred on the side of over-collecting materials,” so nothing inside is official or court findings or even necessarily directly relevant to the case against Jeffrey Epstein. That said, there’s an email in the latest batch of documents reported from Sarah Ransome of note here.

Sarah Ransome is allegedly (sign up for a membership to Rogue so we can hire a lawyer!) one of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s victims. She detailed the abuses she suffered in a memoir called Silenced No More in 2021.

The email from Ransome in the latest batch of Epstein Files is, let’s say, wide-ranging. At one point in it, she makes some accusations against former president of Rockstar North, Leslie Benzies, and co-founder and current president of Rockstar Games, Sam Houser:

“Leslie Benzie (seeming as if he invented the throwing of money at a "prostitute" on me, then sexually assaulted me afterwards...kids, that's what drugs do, then used it in video games for entertainment for millions of people!!! That shit had to come from somewhere, why not the guy that helped invent GTA!! Leslie also visited me in NY and knew what was happening and gave me the money to book my ticket to NY when I arrived on the 1st of September 2006 - check his bank records) Sam Houser, (You met me ample times when dating Leslie, and now the time has come about what you and your Rockstar North boys really get up to behind the scenes. I'm surprised there has yet to be a class action for you guys alone!!)”

Leslie Benzies was fired from Rockstar in 2014 — there was a lawsuit about it — and went on to found Build a Rocket Boy, which released the disastrous MindsEye last year. In that lawsuit from 2016, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Benzies alleges:

“Take-Two and Rockstar threatened to use these false charges against Mr. Benzies if he continued to assert his rights. This was a shocking development given that Sam Houser himself had orchestrated and encouraged a company culture involving strip clubs, personal photography of employees in sexually compromising positions, and other conduct grossly in violation of standard workplace norms."

Elsewhere in the documents, Activision Blizzard’s former CEO, Bobby Kotick shows up. Kotick has come up before — according to The Escapist, Kotick’s name has shown up over 300 times. Kotick apparently met Epstein for dinner at least once and was invited to the infamous island. Epstein was interested at one point in touring the Activision offices.

Again, though, Kotick was not attached to any allegations about Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse. But he was attached to an email between Epstein and a hacker, futurist, and tech accelerationist (and generally weird-seeming dude) named Pablos Holman from 2013.

In the email, Kotick says, “X prize is a good idea but key is real world rewards. Learn to read: =arn cell phone minutes, iphone credits, virtual items in games.” The email is from the months just before the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, the first Call of Duty game to include microtransactions.

As Holman put it, “I’m all for indoctrinating kids into an economy.”