Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser left the corporate in 2020 and now runs a brand new outfit referred to as Absurd Ventures. Houser will likely be without end linked to the GTA franchise, and he is now weighed in on GTA 6.
He advised Selection that he didn’t watch the “Prolonged Look” trailer and would not plan to. Why? He stated he tries to keep away from consuming issues which might be going to “disrupt me creatively.”
“And provided that I spend a considerable amount of time attempting to make open-world video games, and the remainder of my aware time attempting to determine modern methods to market them, I don’t have to see what different persons are [doing],” he stated. “I’m at all times attempting to consider new methods of doing it, not sit there in some type of comparability of what I’d have accomplished otherwise.”
Additionally within the interview, Houser stated he would not play a whole lot of open-world video games anymore, for comparable causes.
“I discover once I play them, I can virtually deconstruct the strengths and weaknesses of the staff in actual time and it’s distracting. I’m at all times considering, ‘Nicely, their animation staff is weak, however I believe this recreation design is incredible.’ And, ‘Oh, I can think about that assembly after they talk about this characteristic,'” he stated. “I’m not a recreation designer; I’m a form of inventive director. So I’m attempting to at all times discover new issues that haven’t been accomplished earlier than, or that I can steal from older media, fairly frankly or simply impressed me or issues I at all times thought of.”
It isn’t that Absurd Ventures is burying its head within the sand, nevertheless. Houser went on to say he has a staff of individuals at his firm who take the time to look at “what everybody else is doing.”
He stated when Rockstar started to develop Pink Useless Redemption, he averted watching any extra Western movies. For GTA, he stated he averted HBO’s acclaimed mob present The Sopranos (1999-2007) as a result of “it will have disrupted all the pieces I did on GTA” if he had seen the present whereas formulating the GTA sequence, which was first launched in 1997.
“So I actually attempt to keep away from issues that I believe are going to overly affect me,” he stated.
Houser is now engaged on a number of initiatives at Absurd Ventures, together with an open-world comedy recreation that he’ll reveal additional “within the subsequent few months.” One other is a dystopian sci-fi recreation about “online game improvement gone very mistaken” when a rogue AI turns into sentient.
He stated within the Selection interview that “there may very well be no higher praise” than to be without end related to GTA. On the similar time, Houser stated he hopes a few of what he works on at Absurd Enterprise will be profitable in its personal proper.
Dan Houser’s brother and Rockstar co-founder, Sam Houser, stays at Rockstar and was concerned within the creation of GTA 6. GQ author Sam White just lately posted a sequence of tweets (after which deleted them) saying an interview he had deliberate with Sam Houser fell aside on the final minute. That is notable as a result of Sam Houser hardly ever provides any interviews in any respect, nor does he seem in Rockstar’s official promotional efforts for the corporate’s releases.
GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Sequence X|S. In different information, Rockstar just lately revealed a few of its secrets and techniques and detailed how a recreation like GTA 6 will get made.