Dan Houser on Leaving ‘GTA 6’ Studio Rockstar Games, Starting an Absurd New Company and Why He Doesn’t Play Open-World Games Anymore

By Jennifer Maas

Jennifer Maas

TV Business Writer

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“Red Dead Redemption” and “Grand Theft Auto” mastermind Dan Houser is ready to spill the first significant details about his next video game projects.

The co-founder and former head writer of Rockstar Games is currently developing two titles at his new media company, Absurd Ventures, which he formally launched in 2023 following his 2020 exit from Rockstar.

“One is an open-world comedy which is trying to really lean into comedy and character memory, and that we’ll have more information on in the next few months,” Houser says on this week’s episode of Variety‘s “Strictly Business” podcast. “And the other is a dystopian sci-fi about a video game development gone very wrong, and about a rogue AI that discovered sentience. But unfortunately, it was made by two people that didn’t like each other, so it doesn’t like itself.”

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