Grand Theft Auto is nearly synonymous with Dan Houser, but the Rockstar Video games co-founder says he’d be extra unhappy to see Pink Lifeless Redemption 3 occur with out him. Alongside his brother Sam, Houser was lengthy thought-about the driving inventive drive behind the studio’s greatest hits, but he selected to step away from the corporate in 2020 after the launch of RDR 2. Speaking to podcaster Lex Fridman, Houser displays on watching GTA 6 come to fruition from a distance, the protagonist he initially needed to kill, and why his greatest crime video games are so deeply rooted in Americana.
Houser is now operating multimedia developer Absurd Ventures, which is engaged on all the pieces from comedian books to a brand new open-world recreation, and says he is “happy to be doing different stuff, excited for what we’re engaged on now.” But he acknowledges that forsaking a collection he is been so near for greater than 20 years, with lead author credit on over ten video games, “is an enormous change, and unhappy in a manner.” But he finds himself extra capable of watch GTA 6 play out from a distance than he would if Pink Lifeless Redemption 3 occurred.
“As a result of every of the [GTA] video games was form of a standalone story, it is not fairly the identical; I believe it most likely could be, in some methods, sadder if somebody continued on Pink Lifeless, as a result of it was a cohesive two-game arc. That could be extra unhappy to listen to somebody engaged on that. However once more, that most likely will occur too. I do not personal the IP. That was type of a part of the deal – it is a privilege to work on stuff, however you do not essentially personal it.”
Digging into story spoilers for each collection, Houser reveals that earlier than Pink Lifeless Redemption’s tragic climax, “I might have appreciated to have, on the finish of GTA 4, killed Niko, however you could not do it. You already know, the sport would not work out like that.” He explains that “the video games do not actually finish and you’ve got to have the ability to wander world wide and do stuff.” Whereas Niko does lose somebody near him (relying in your decisions by the story), he is capable of proceed partaking within the different open-world frolics on supply.
The crew determined in the long run to take the chance with RDR, and everyone knows how that went. Even then, a concession was made to have a substitute protagonist step into John Marston’s footwear – his son, Jack. “That was additionally [because] the sport nonetheless needed to work as a recreation,” Houser continues. “Whether or not that was the correct ending, 100% the very best ending from a pure storytelling perspective, I do not know.” He provides that “I all the time additionally needed a model of it the place Jack did escape [from the cycle of violence], however that wasn’t… you already know.”
Houser additionally touches on the GTA 5 DLC that was by no means completed, “the place you performed as Trevor, however he was a undercover agent.” He estimates that the venture “was about half carried out when it acquired deserted,” however provides, “I believe if that had come out, we most likely would not have gotten to make Pink Lifeless 2. So there are all the time compromises.” In the long run, GTA On-line acquired the larger focus, however Houser says “I like single-player DLC. I simply suppose the viewers loves it, and it is actually enjoyable to make.”
He notes that Absurd is now specializing in open-world single-player video games, in an try and lean into the studio’s strengths. Launching a multiplayer-focused new IP is “extraordinarily laborious,” he says, though there’s the chance that an Absurd-developed recreation would possibly find yourself including “multiplayer elements” in some unspecified time in the future. “I would like to, with all of these, preserve single-player DLC going, a method or one other.”
GTA London “was fairly cute and enjoyable,” however Houser says the crew determined that the collection had “a lot Americana inherent within the IP” {that a} full recreation could be laborious to make work anyplace else. “You wanted weapons, you wanted these larger-than-life characters. It simply felt like the sport was a lot about America, probably from an outsider’s perspective.” He acknowledges, nonetheless, that the lengthy lead instances on recreation improvement immediately make sharp, satirical tales more durable: “How do you characterize it when issues transfer so shortly and so quick?”
In case you’re curious to listen to extra of Houser’s ideas on Rockstar over time, his new work with Absurd Ventures, the shortcoming to make its failed spy caper Agent match an open-world setting, and the way each he and his characters face their very own mortality, I would definitely suggest listening to the total interview. The GTA 6 launch date is beginning to really feel remarkably shut as of late, though with nonetheless no phrase on the PC model, however maybe as soon as that is behind us we’ll uncover whether or not Rockstar needs to return to the Previous West.
Test in with the forged record of GTA 6 voice actors to see who’ll be starring in Rockstar’s return to Vice Metropolis. Or sit up for the largest upcoming PC video games for the remainder of 2025 and past.
Would you’ve gotten appreciated to see a Rockstar recreation finish in another way? Share your ideas in our neighborhood Discord server, the place you possibly can chat with the workers and hundreds of readers.
