Rockstar Games co-founder and lead writer on GTA, Red Dead Redemption and more, Dan Houser has just taken part in his first ever on-camera interview. This historic moment for fans of Rockstar Games occured at LA Comic Con in front of a live audience in person and around the world via a live stream. We’ll be taking a look at some of the most interesting things Houser revealed to us.
Titled “In Conversation with Dan Houser: Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and Now American Caper”, IGN’s Senior Executive Editor Ryan McCaffrey interviewed Houser on various topics. These ranged from his past work such as writing for Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption but also his upcoming projects at his new studio Absurd Ventures.
The interview lasted around 15 minutes which is not very long at all. However, this is an long time for one of the Houser brothers. The duo have remained largely hidden from the spotlight since creating Rockstar Games. They speak in rare statements such as when Sam announced GTA 6‘s trailer. Outside of that, they let their games to all of the talking.
That said, now Dan is no longer at the company after his shock exit in 2020, he is more public; talking about his new studio and games. He’ll be taking part in a deeper, multi-hour interview with Lex Fridman soon. More details can be found here including how you can ask Dan a question. Stay tuned to RockstarINTEL for when that interview drops.
Interview Quotes
Firstly, Ryan asked Dan if it would be strange playing GTA 6 and not knowing everything in the game. In response to this, Dan said “In a way (it will be strange). I think it be a great privilege to have worked on something that big. I wrote the last 10 or 11 of them. I think world had enough GTA from me. They’re always a new story. It won’t be a story I wrote or a character set I developed but I think it will be exciting. The game will be great I’m sure.”
The next few questions went back and talked about the early beginnings. Take-Two, the publisher had financial issues and people did not think GTA III was great.
“We thought we had something exciting (the move to 3D for GTA III). The rest of the world did not seem to agree with us. They seemed completely underwhelmed by something we thought had the potential to be amazing. Some of the press still didn’t quite get it but the audience did.”
Upon release, Take-Two did not have the money to print discs quick enough. It had sold out. Dan says “we couldn’t make the game quick enough. It just kept rolling. We kept thinking it would stop and it just never stopped.”
I live a pretty normal life. I love making stuff.”
What Dan Houser Is Working On Next
This interview also gave us an “exclusive glimpse into American Caper”. American Caper is one of the new IPs created by Houser at Absurd Ventures. It was revealed in July that the franchise will have its first release, a comic book by Houser and Lazlow of Rockstar Games fame, out in November.
McCaffrey revealed to the audience he had read some of the first issue of this graphic novel. It seemingly starts out “normal” but quickly becomes darker than anything Houser has done at Rockstar. The writer explained he “wanted to tell a story about a group of degenerate criminals from a completely perspective and part of the world.” He adds that it is a setting you could “never make a GTA game in.”
As for games, Dan briefly mentions some info on them. “Absurdaverse” is an open world, 3rd person comedy. Meanwhile A Better Paradise will be a “3rd person dystopian tragedy or mess”. Houser reiterates they are in very early production.
“It’s exciting to be working on something new.”
American Caper is a different IP from others that his two upcoming games are based on. Last month, we learned Absurd secured a publisher for their open world game. You can watch the full interview here.
Are you interested in Dan Houser’s open world game from his new studio? Let us know in the comments. Stay tuned to RockstarINTEL for news updates on Absurd Ventures and everything Rockstar Games.
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