On February 4, 2020, Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar Games suddenly left his company after 22 years of loyal service. While the studio was in the midst of developing GTA 6, the man who had brought the franchise to life and who was responsible for writing almost all Rockstar games decided to move on to new horizons.
Two years later, in June 2023, Dan Houser announced the creation of his own studio, and not just for video games. With Absurd Ventures, Dan and his teams want to tackle the entire pop culture and entertainment sphere with audio fiction, series, graphic novels, games and many other projects.
Today, it seems that the studio is ready to launch its first very ambitious video game, which seems to take the bases and codes of a certain Grand Theft Auto.
Absurd Ventures: an independent GTA in the works?
His face may not ring a bell. And for good reason, Dan Houser is not the type to hang out on social media or show himself regularly, even in interviews. However, he is ranked by the media The Guardian among the 30 most influential people in the world alongside his big brother, Sam Houser. Because yes, Sam and Dan are the co-founders of Rockstar Games, the company to which we owe the cult games Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Manhunt, Midnight Club and even L.A. Noire and Bully. Cult games that have left a deep mark on the history of video games and, more broadly, on pop culture, notably with Grand Theft Auto V (2013), the studio's penultimate game, which sold 210 million copies and became the most profitable cultural product in history.
Dan Houser was vice president and writing director for almost all Rockstar games between 1998 and 2018 with the release of Red Dead Redemption II, the studio's latest title. Now, he's writing for his new company.
Since the studio's creation was announced in June 2023, Absurd Ventures has come a long way (already). First, Lazlow Jones, iconic producer of the GTA license for over 20 years, left Rockstar to join Dan Houser's team. He was imitated by many Rockstar stalwarts, who had been in the studio for 16 to 19 years, such as Adam Tedman (head of new licenses) and Michael Unsworth (writing director), who both chose to follow Dan Houser in his new adventure.
Then, the studio released its first creation with A Better Paradise, a 12-episode audio fiction that has been available since last summer, starring Andrew Lincoln, the actor who plays Rick in the series The Walking Dead. This year, Absurd Ventures' second project, the graphic novel American Caper is also set to be released, giving the studio two intellectual properties just two years after its launch.
But that's not all. Apparently, the studio is about to make its first video game announcement and the project seems gargantuan.
The specialized media Absurd Ventures Mag' released an investigation a few hours ago into the first video game from Dan Houser's studio. And, apparently, it's looking pretty interesting.
We learned that the studio has been working on this title since June 2021, already 4 years. Absurd Ventures recently recruited numerous veterans of the video game industry to participate in this AAA open-world action game.
There are industry seniors who have worked at studios like Insomniac Games (Spider-Man, Ratchet & Clank), Santa Monica Studio (God of War), Telltales Games (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us), Crystal Dynamics (The Legacy of Kain, Tomb Raider), Bungie (Halo, Destiny), 2K Games (BioShock, Borderlands), Hangar13 (Mafia), Niantic (Pokémon Go), Riot Games (Valorant, League of Legends) or even Sledgehammer Games (Call of Duty) to name a few. Note that in its recruitment, Absurd Ventures focused on Seniors with high experience, rather than on Junior and Middle developers.
- UPDATED JANUARY 28, 2025
Another industry veteran joins the Absurd Ventures troops with Del Walker. The latter announced on his networks that he had just joined the studio as Lead Character Artist. On his CV? More great things since the latter has worked in renowned studios such as Naughty Dog, Rocksteady or Respawn Entertainment, allowing him to work on games such as The Last Of Us Part II Remastered, Star Wars Jedi Survivor or Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League to name a few. This is yet another very interesting new recruit for Absurd Ventures, which continues to grow stronger, week after week.
Absurd Ventures Mag’s investigation also specifies that in December 2024, Dan Houser’s studio partnered with the Korean giant Smilegate to collaboratively develop this first AAA game, the announcement of which is planned “soon”. This partnership is strategic and will aim to take advantage of the skills of both companies.
For its part, Absurd Ventures will count on the major influence of Smilegate to establish itself on the Asian market. Indeed, Smilegate is the main publisher and developer of video games in Korea. In 2007, they launched Crossfire which has accumulated more than a billion registered players. In 2018, they launched Lost Ark, which is still a big success today. Smilegate will be responsible for developing the online part of the game in order to create a game that can last for many years (like a certain GTA Online). In addition, Smilegate will take care of distribution and marketing on the Asian market.
For its part, Absurd Ventures will take care of the development of the solo/narrative part of the game. Thanks to the expertise and the pen of Dan Houser, Lazlow Jones or Michael Unsworth who wrote the GTA and Red Dead Redemption games together. Absurd Ventures will take care of the development of the solo game and its open world in their two studios based in Santa Monica and San Rafael in California. The studio will also handle distribution and marketing in the Western market (America and Europe).
A well-oiled strategy that could allow Absurd Ventures and Smilegate to take advantage of each other and make their first game a huge success.
But that's not all. Indeed, in the final phase of its investigation, Absurd Ventures Mag' listed all the information found to date concerns this video game. Details spread across the various job offers over the last 15 months. We know that Absurd Ventures' first game will be:
- AAA open-world action game
- Developed on Unreal Engine 5, with high-quality photorealistic textures
- The presence of Ray Tracing
- The presence of main and secondary missions as well as critical missions that combine a first-rate narrative and action gameplay
- The presence of dynamic and unpredictable missions that adapt to the choices and actions of the players
- A first-rate open-world experience, rich in characters, encounters, side missions, puzzles, secrets, objects to discover, objects to collect, and much more.
- High-quality character and creature animations that define the quality of animation. The studio is looking for a highly skilled and experienced person in this field to create fluid, realistic animations so that they improve the overall game and offer a very high-quality experience to players.
For the moment, it is far too early to say if it will be a "GTA" style game, which will take place in our time, with gunfights, car chases and car thefts. But in any case, the first game from Dan Houser and his studio Absurd Ventures takes the codes of GTA and Red Dead with a solid open-world game as a starting point that is extremely rich and complete. To be continued!
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