Dan Houser Is Avoiding GTA 6 Footage While Absurd Ventures Develops 2 Open-World Games
He said studying other open-world games can pull his attention toward judging their design instead of working out his own ideas.
Dan Houser has not watched Grand Theft Auto VI‘s extended reveal, and he is trying to keep it that way while Absurd Ventures develops new games. In a Variety interview, the former Rockstar Games co-founder and writer explained that he avoids work that could distract or disrupt him creatively.
“I haven’t seen it yet. I will try and avoid it because I always try and avoid stuff that’s going to distract or disrupt me creatively,” Houser said. He added that he would rather find his own approach than watch another team’s choices and compare them with what he might have done differently.
Houser said he spends much of his time making open-world games and the rest thinking about innovative ways to market them. He also avoids many open-world games because he finds himself analyzing their animation, design, and the decisions behind particular features, which can pull his attention away from his own work.
He has set similar boundaries before. When work began on Red Dead Redemption, Houser stopped watching Westerns. He also avoided The Sopranos while at Rockstar, then watched the series during COVID after seeing its finale with his then-girlfriend, now wife. Houser said it was so good that watching it earlier might have affected his work on GTA.
Houser left Rockstar in 2020 and founded Absurd Ventures. He described his role as a creative director rather than a game designer, focused on finding ideas that have not been done before or drawing inspiration from older media. His teams keep up with current games and trends, while he does not need to track what every other studio is doing.
Absurd Ventures is developing at least two games with very different tones. One is an open-world comedy action-adventure that will lean into humor and character memory. Houser said the studio expects to share more about it in the coming months.
The other project is a dystopian sci-fi story about a video game development gone wrong and a rogue AI that discovers it is sentient. Houser offered a darkly comic detail about the AI’s origins: it was created by two people who disliked each other, “so it doesn’t like itself.”
Does Houser’s effort to avoid other open-world games seem like a useful creative boundary, or does one of Absurd Ventures’ game premises catch your attention more? As the studio prepares to share more about its open-world comedy, stay connected with us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
Grand Theft Auto VI
Developed by Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.
- Genre Shooter, Racing, Adventure
- Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5
- Perspective First person, Third person
- Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release November 19, 2026
- Publisher Rockstar Games, Take-Two Interactive
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Age Rating
