Dan Houser does not plan to play GTA VI

Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games, does not plan to play Grand Theft Auto VI. He has not watched the 27-minute look at the game from August either. He avoids anything that could influence his own work, he told Variety.

Houser was head writer and creative director of the Grand Theft Auto series. He left Rockstar in 2020 and launched his own company, Absurd Ventures, in 2023. He spoke on the Variety podcast “Strictly Business”, which appeared on 2 October. IGN Benelux reported on it a day later.

Why he avoids open-world games

Houser says he hardly plays open-world games anymore. When he plays one, he takes apart the strengths and weaknesses of the team in real time. That distracts him. He calls himself a creative director rather than a game designer.

He looks for things that have not been done before, or that he can borrow from older media. People on his team keep up with the latest games and trends, he told Variety.

He worked the same way at Rockstar. While making Red Dead Redemption, he did not watch a single other western. He only watched The Sopranos after leaving Rockstar, during COVID. The series is so good that it would have disrupted his work on GTA, Houser says.

Two new games at Absurd Ventures

Absurd Ventures is working on two games. One is an open-world comedy built around humour and the memory of its characters. More information on it should follow in the coming months, according to Houser.

The other is a dystopian science fiction game about a game development that goes very wrong. It features a rogue AI that becomes self-aware. Neither game has a title yet, and no release date is known.

The company also makes comics, books and podcasts set in three worlds of its own: A Better Paradise, American Caper and the Absurdaverse. A thick season finale of the American Caper comics comes out next month, together with the book A Better Paradise. That is one week before GTA VI, IGN Benelux writes.

GTA VI without Houser

GTA VI comes out on 19 November. It is the first game in the series made without Dan Houser. Rockstar is still led by his brother Sam Houser, Variety notes.

Whether his new games will always be compared to GTA, Houser does not know. On one level that would be the greatest compliment, he says. His aim is to make things he is proud of, not to succeed in the market.