The biggest question surrounding GTA 6, aside from its price and release date, has been why Dan Houser actually left Rockstar Games. The co-founder of Rockstar wrote every GTA and RDR game, yet still chose to leave the studio in 2020, which shocked everyone. There have been plenty of speculations, with various insiders sharing what they know. But now, we finally have an official explanation from the man himself.
Why Dan Houser Left Rockstar Games
In an interview with Radio 4, where he was speaking about his debut novel, Dan Houser was directly asked about his departure from Rockstar Games. He revealed that it all came down to really long projects and their increasing complexity. “The projects are really long and tough and take a long time to make,” he said.
“It can be a tough journey getting things at that scale with that many moving parts finished, and you’ve got 4,500 lines of dialogue and equal numbers of parts of other things trying to assemble itself. It’s this huge production experience, and that swallows all of your time for many years at a time, and I didn’t know if I had another one of those games in me.”
A week ago, Tez2, a well-known Rockstar insider, even revealed that he left after a disagreement with his brother Sam about the company’s direction. This information reportedly came from two former developers.
Dan Houser Wanted More Single-Player Stories
This sentiment honestly makes sense, even as a Rockstar Games fan. We have already waited so long for GTA 6, and it is still a year away at this point. So there is a growing feeling in the community about whether Rockstar should keep focusing on such massive games, or instead go back to making smaller ones that could release every two or three years.
Dan Houser loves to write stories, but still had to move on from various single-player projects. Speaking to IGN at L.A. Comic Con, he said the reason Bully 2 never happened was because of bandwidth issues. Even Grand Theft Auto 5’s single-player DLC about Trevor becoming an agent did not happen because the team had to focus on Red Dead Redemption 2. They also cancelled The Agent game because they could not figure out how to fit a spy story into an open world.
New Video Games From Dan Houser, After He Left Rockstar
So, looking at this from a third-person POV, it really makes sense why Dan Houser decided to move on from Rockstar Games in 2020. We already know that he started Absurd Ventures the following year and announced it in 2023. Several other GTA veterans, including Lazlow Jones and Michael Unsworth, joined too. They have released A Better Paradise, an audio fiction series about artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Dan Houser recently wrote a novel for it titled A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath. Apart from this, they have also released American Caper, a comic book series about crime drama.
It’s not just about books, as the company has some games under its belt. The first one is based on their comedy fiction universe, Absurdaverse. It was unveiled in January 2025 and will be a story-driven action-comedy game. The game, along with some animation projects, will feature a diverse mix of characters, as evident from the official artwork.
There is another game in development at Absurd Ventures, set in the universe of A Better Paradise. It will be an open-world game that explores themes of an abandoned game world and superintelligence. Dan felt that A Better Paradise worked well as an audio series, novel, television series, and video game, while the Absurdaverse would be suited for an animated series and a video game. Lastly, An American Caper is more fitting as a comic book. Anyway, both games are still in very early development, so do not expect to hear much about them anytime soon.
Interesting Times Ahead…
This might be the reason why Dan Houser actually left Rockstar Games. He wanted to work on multiple single-player stories, instead of being tied to just one for five or six years. It was a level of creative freedom he might not have had at Rockstar.
So in a way, it is both sad and exciting. We will get new stories and games from one of the greatest writers in video game history, but we also have to accept that he did not write GTA 6, and he might not write RDR3 if it ever happens.
