Dan Houser Avoids GTA 6 to Protect Creative Process
Former Rockstar creative director Dan Houser explains he is skipping GTA 6 and all open-world games to avoid deconstructing other teams' work.
Dan Houser, the former creative director and co-founder of Rockstar Games, will not be playing Grand Theft Auto 6. He is avoiding the upcoming open-world title, and the entire genre, as a professional discipline to protect his own creative design process at his new company, Absurd Ventures.
Houser explained that playing open-world games leads him to deconstruct the technical work of development teams in real time. He finds himself analyzing team strengths and weaknesses, which becomes a distraction. His goal is to focus on finding innovative ways to create and market his own projects without that comparative interference.
Career Move and New Venture
Dan Houser now leads Absurd Ventures. The company is actively developing two new video game projects. It has also begun expanding its catalog beyond games with other narrative ventures.
Absurd Ventures has already released the graphic novel series American Caper and a book titled A Better Paradise. A double-sized season-finale issue of American Caper is scheduled for release next month, one week before the launch of GTA 6.
Why He Is Skipping GTA 6
The decision to skip GTA 6 is part of a broader professional habit. Houser stated he generally does not consume open-world titles. Dedicating time to analyzing other developers' work would interfere with his objective of forging new paths for his own titles at Absurd Ventures. He aims to innovate in creation and promotion, not compare what he might have done differently.
Past Habits and Future Plans
This is not a new practice for Houser. During the development of Red Dead Redemption, he avoided watching Western productions. He even postponed viewing seminal series like The Sopranos until years after leaving Rockstar Games. He is grateful for the delay, believing that watching it during his Rockstar tenure would have disrupted his work on the Grand Theft Auto series.
Houser clarified that his role is not that of a game designer but rather a form of creative director. He recently spoke about Absurd Ventures at LA Comic-Con. The article closes on Houser's plan to focus on innovative promotion of his own titles rather than playing GTA 6.
