Former GTA producer welcomes PlayStation and 2K talent to Build A Rocket Boy studio

Build A Rocket Boy, the studio set up by former Grand Theft Auto producer Leslie Benzies following his departure from Rockstar Games, has welcomed three industry veterans through its doors.

First up is Mick Hocking, who has joined the team as its chief development officer. Hocking co-founded Evolution Studios back in the day. As well as this, he is also a former vice president of product development for Codemasters and vice president for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

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Next to join Build A Rocket Boy is Murray Pannell. Pannell is joining as the studio's senior vice president of global marketing. His previous work includes marketing director for both Ubisoft and PlayStation UK and Ireland. Most recently, he was part of the team at 2K, where he was vice president of publishing for Europe.

Lastly, we have Randall Price, who has joined as chief publishing officer for Build A Rocket Boy. Price's previous roles include serving as vice president of publishing for Ncsoft and senior vice president of global business for ArenaNet.

Speaking of these new appointements, Benzies said: "Since 2016 Build A Rocket Boy's team has been quietly growing and today we're delighted to publicly welcome Mick, Murray and Randall to the studio.

"Each of them brings a huge amount of experience, knowledge and passion to Build A Rocket Boy as we continue development on Everywhere, and we're looking forward to having more to announce from the team later in 2022."

So far, very little is known about the studio's upcoming game, but we do know it will be a massive open world experience.

"Everywhere has a lot of traditional game mechanics but we're going for something more that draws inspiration from, well, everywhere," Benzies said in 2017 (via Venture Beat).

"Players are getting smarter and require more from their games, and we want players to have the real freedom to live in our worlds in the ways they want to.

"We're aiming to offer a huge variety of game modes and styles that not only tell our stories but also enable players to live in the identities and adventures they most want to explore."