It has just been announced that Rockstar Games’ co-founder Dan Houser’s new company has opened a second studio. Absurd Ventures are currently working on an open world action-adventure game and they’ve just brought in several games developers in a new office based in Marin County, California.
Named after where it is based, Absurd Marin is made up of developers from Ascendant Studios. They were founded by Bret Robbins. Most known for being Sledgehammer Games’ Creative Director in this storied career, he worked on Call of Duty titles such as Advanced Warfare. Robbins left to start up and run Ascendant Studios and served as Game Director on the studio’s first title.
Their first and last game was Immortals of Aveum which launched last year. Despite its impressive graphics and technical achievements, it failed to sell many copies. Huge layoffs hit the company and has been seen as a commercial failure.
Following these layoffs, Bret has left his own company to join forces with Dan Houser and company. Robbins is leading the new Absurd Marin branch. According to gamesindustry.biz, Absurd Ventures told them “about 20 developers from the core team behind Immortals of Aveum”. Also, Absurd’s second office “will continue to staff up further as development progresses on the project.”
Second Project In The Works
That project in question is apparently separate from the open world action-adventure game based their A Better Paradise franchise. It is said that this will be a “story-driven adventure title based on an unannounced new IP”. Absurd’s first media project, A BETTER PARADISE the audio drama, released in June.
Previously we reported on a job listing posted by Absurd Ventures. For a Lead Gameplay Designer role it stated “Become the primary vision holder and hands-on contributor for character, controls, and camera design in an open world action-adventure game.”
Alongside Dan Houser, several former Rockstar veterans are part of Absurd Ventures. These include Lazlow Jones (former writer, producer, actor), Michael Unsworth (former Vice President of Writing), and Adam Tedman (former VP of New Media).
“Absurd is building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a diverse variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation; video games and other interactive content; books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts.”
Are you interested in Dan Houser’s new company? Let us know in the comments. Stay tuned to RockstarINTEL for news updates on Absurd Ventures and everything Rockstar Games.
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