GTA 6: Why Co-Founder Dan Houser Won't Play the Game

Dan Houser, co-founder and former creative director at Rockstar Games, told Variety he does not intend to play GTA 6, saying he generally avoids open-world games to prevent unintended influence on projects at his studio Absurd Ventures.

Houser's stated reason for avoiding GTA 6

In an interview with Variety, Houser said he focuses his time on creating new ideas and developing innovative marketing approaches for his work, and therefore does not need to see what other developers are doing. He said, "Given that I spend a lot of time trying to build open-world games and the rest of my conscious time finding innovative ways to market them, I don't need to see what other people are doing. I always try to think of new ways to do things, rather than sitting in a position of comparison asking what I would have done differently."

How Houser manages external influences

Houser described deliberately avoiding media that might shape his creative decisions while he is developing a project. He said that while working on Red Dead Redemption he stopped watching Westerns as soon as the project began. He added that he did not watch The Sopranos until after leaving Rockstar; he saw only one episode earlier because he and his wife watched the series finale when it aired, then watched the complete series during the pandemic. He told Variety, "I am very grateful I watched it then, because if I had watched it during that period it would have overshadowed all my work on GTA. So I really try to avoid things that affect me too much."

How playing open-world games affects his creative process

Houser said playing open-world games tends to distract him because he immediately analyzes a studio's strengths and weaknesses. "When I play open-world games, I almost simultaneously analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the development team and I get distracted. I keep thinking the animation team is weak but the game design looks fantastic, or I can imagine a meeting where they discussed a particular feature," he said. He emphasized that he is not a game designer but a type of creative director and is always looking for things that have not been done before or older media he can draw inspiration from.

Projects at Absurd Ventures

Houser's studio Absurd Ventures is currently working on two unannounced games. The studio will also publish the visual novel series American Caper alongside the book A Better Paradise.

All quotes and details above are drawn from Houser's interview with Variety.