Dan Houser, Co-Founder of Rockstar, Admits He Hasn’t Seen the GTA 6 Netflix Reveal Yet
Dan Houser played a pivotal role in writing and producing every installment of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption 2. He served as the creative president at Rockstar Games, a company he co-founded with his brother Sam Houser, until his departure in 2020. Currently, he’s diving into new projects, including a comedic open-world game, and has expressed that he’s avoiding the GTA 6 gameplay reveal to prevent any creative distractions.
In a recent podcast interview, Houser shared that despite his deep ties to the Grand Theft Auto franchise and his brother’s ongoing leadership at Rockstar, he hasn’t seen the gameplay reveal for GTA 6 that debuted in August. “I haven’t seen it yet,” he stated. “I will try and avoid it because I always try and avoid stuff that’s going to distract or disrupt me creatively. Since I spend a lot of time crafting open-world games and the rest of my time figuring out innovative marketing strategies, I don’t need to see what others are doing. I’m focused on thinking of new approaches rather than comparing myself to others.”
He elaborated that playing open-world games has become challenging for him, as he tends to analyze the development process, which can be distracting. “When I play them, I can almost deconstruct the strengths and weaknesses of the team in real time, and it’s distracting,” Houser explained. “I find myself thinking, ‘Their animation team is weak, but this game design is fantastic,’ or imagining the discussions that took place during development. I’m not a game designer; I’m more of a creative director, always on the lookout for fresh ideas that haven’t been explored or that I can draw inspiration from.”
Houser noted that he’s fortunate not to feel the need to keep up with every new open-world game, as his team at Absurd Ventures, which he founded in 2023, handles that for him. “I’m focused on thinking about new ways of doing it,” he said.
Reflecting on his past work, he mentioned that while developing Red Dead Redemption, he avoided watching other Westerns and didn’t see The Sopranos until after leaving Rockstar. “I only caught one episode during its finale with my girlfriend-now-wife, and then I binge-watched it during COVID. I’m grateful I didn’t watch it earlier, as it would have influenced my work on GTA,” he said. “I really try to steer clear of anything that might overly influence my creative process.”
As for his current endeavors, Houser is expanding several multimedia franchises through Absurd Ventures. The company has released audio dramas, comic books, and novels, and is also working on two video games based on these franchises. “One is an open-world comedy that leans heavily into humor and character memory, and we’ll share more details in the coming months,” he revealed. “The other is a dystopian sci-fi narrative about a video game development gone awry, featuring a rogue AI that has gained sentience but was created by two individuals who didn’t get along, leading to its own internal conflict.”
