Rockstar Games’ co-founder and former lead creative director Dan Houser has just taken part in his first live TV interview. After giving essential no interviews in over 25 years to now doing three different types of interviews within weeks of each other, Rockstar Games superfans cannot believe what is happening as of recent.
Hot off the heels of a near 3 hour podcast interview and first ever book and comic release, Dan Houser visited Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch to be quizzed on his latest work and future of gaming.
For those unaware, Sunday Brunch is a weekly show broadcasted live in the UK. Hosts Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer talk to a variety of guests and cook over the course of a few hours. To the surprise of many GTA fans, Dan Houser was one of the guests in the most recent episode that aired on November 23rd 2025.
An Historic Moment
The interview starts off with Houser explaining how his career in games began. Plus, how Rockstar learned with each game how they could advance the art of storytelling within a game.
“It was partly that (we play as a version of ourselves we can’t play out in the real world) partly it put you in this exaggerated, cinematic world and mostly I would argue because it was this sense of freedom. Before that, games were either a shooter, driving or simulation game. (GTA) was all 3 smashed together in a way that felt very free. Also, when people talk about the metaverse or this digital world, those were the first games that showed you this idea of living in this fake place.”
Later on, Lovejoy asked Houser where he thinks video games will go in the future now AI advancements have been made. Houser explained his thoughts:
“It can either go somewhere really interesting or somewhere that gets overly focused on making money. There’s always that danger. I think both will win. There will be two paths.”
What’s Next?
Later on, Dan promotes his new and first ever book: A Better Paradise. He explains the premise of it to the audience and how he came up with the idea of it during 2020’s pandemic.
A Better Paradise is one of a few new IP that Houser has come up with at his new company “Absurd Ventures”. It already has an audio drama and now the book will further the franchise’s narrative as they work on a game based on this new universe.
Houser tells Sunday Brunch the game won’t tell the exact same story. He adds the game started development around 18 months ago. However, there are still “a few years” to go before the game is released.
AI In Games
Lovejoy asks Houser if AI is involved in the game. The writer says there is lots of AI in the narrative as that is what it is about. As for the game’s development, they are “dabbling in using AI but the truth is, a lot of it is not as useful as some of the companies would have you believe yet. It’s not going to solve all of the problems. (…) If we all give it all of our money, it might do it in the future.”
“My experience has always been technological innovation is that first 80% is quite easy. The last 20% to make it a perfect simulation of something in the real world is very, very hard. So I would be interested to see how the last part, how hard it is for AI. Which learns in different ways to normal computing development.”
If you’d like to watch the full Sunday Brunch episode, you can view it on Channel 4’s video on demand service here. Also, Dan will be signing copies of A Better Paradise and the comic American Caper at Forbidden Planet London this Saturday. This is Dan’s first public meet and greet/signing event.
In other Dan Houser news, we recently learned the reason why he left Rockstar. Stay tuned to RockstarINTEL for news updates on everything Rockstar Games.
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