Grand Theft Auto writer and Rockstar founder Dan Houser starts new studio

Dan Houser’s latest venture has been revealed. The Rockstar Games co-founder and co-creator of Grand Theft Auto announced that Absurd Ventures “will create new IP across all platforms and for all formats.”

Houser, who left Rockstar in 2020, first chartered a company called “Absurd Ventures in Games” in mid-2021. Thursday’s statement is Houser’s first formal statement that he’s behind a new studio.

“We are building Absurd Ventures to create new universes and to tell great stories, wherever and however we can,” Houser said in a news release. The statement said that Absurd Ventures seeks to build narrative worlds and characters “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.”

Absurd Ventures was formally announced with a two-minute video that embraces the absurdity of the company’s name. Composed of what appears to be stock and original footage (one scene shows a group of zombies dancing; another shows a guy vacuuming a forest clearing), the video asks “Is it OK to dream again, or will you just try to sell me something? Will you shoot me if I ask questions? Is it all my fault that things went so very strange?” The video ends with what appears to be the studio’s tagline: “Storytelling. Philanthropy. Ultraviolence.”

Houser started Rockstar Games, a gaming studio, with his brother Sam in 1998. The company is most well-known for Grand Theft Auto series and Red Dead Redemption, but also Max Payne and other cutting edge titles such as Manhunt for Bully” L.A. Noire.

His work was one of the most influential writers in GrYou can also find out more about the following: Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. The two biggest launches in the last decade, measured by sales. He has also been a producer, writer, and director on Bully 2006 Max Payne 3 (2012).

Rockstar revealed in February 2020, that Dan Houser will be leaving Rockstar after an extended hiatus that followed Red Dead Redemption 2,’s fall 2018 launch.