In June 2023, three years after leaving Rockstar Games, the company he founded alongside his brother Sam, but also alongside several members of the industry such as Jamie King, Terry Donovan and Gary Foreman, Dan Houser announced the creation of his new studio.
After contributing to the creation of cult licenses, such as Grand Theft Auto (GTA), Red Dead and Bully, it was time for Dan Houser to regain his independence. Less than two years after founding his new venture, Absurd Ventures, Dan Houser is already co-leading more than 12 projects, including two video games, centered around three new intellectual properties.
Absurd Ventures: Going Beyond Video Games
With Absurd Ventures, Dan Houser and his elite team, including Lazlow Jones, Michael Unsworth, Adam Tedman (all former Rockstar Games employees), and numerous industry veterans recruited from major studios (Naughty Dog, Santa Monica Studio, Insomniac Games, Riot Games, Bungie, and many others), do not want to limit themselves to video games.
Currently, Absurd Ventures is working on about ten projects, including only two video games. For Dan Houser, who is clearly one of the best writers in the industry, it's a pleasure to be able to write in different formats.
Absurd Ventures' goal is to reach fans and specialists of different media. With A Better Paradise, the studio's first project that is an audio fiction, the idea was not to target old Rockstar fans of games like GTA and Red Dead, but to appeal to fans and specialists of podcasts:
Furthermore, Dan and his teams set no limits. Thus, productions like A Better Paradise or American Caper (their second project), which will be entitled to several formats, will be able to have the right to other new formats in the future. Nothing is set in stone for Dan Houser:
A Better Paradise: a video game coming in several years
Absurd Ventures' first project has been available since June 2024. A Better Paradise is an audio fiction (podcast), featuring Andrew Lincoln, the star of the series The Walking Dead. The fiction tells the unfortunate development of an innovative video game concept, linked to AI and produced by Doctor Mark Tyburn. The project will ultimately take unexpected turns and will quickly go off the rails.
Following the success of the first volume, A Better Paradise will be entitled to a sequel, with a Volume 2. The fiction will also be adapted into a novel, starting this fall. Absurd Ventures has confirmed that a TV series and a video game based on the Absurd Ventures universe are also in production. However, the game was not expected to arrive immediately and is expected to require several more years of production:
A Better Paradise is an audio fiction that deals with the rise of AI. However, the objective of the series is not to raise awareness or address the excesses of AI. Indeed, Dan Houser confirms that this story began to be written several years ago, at the dawn of Metaverses and cryptocurrencies, long before AI occupied all our media space.
American Caper: a detective story in comics and paperback
The second project from Absurd Ventures is therefore American Caper. This project was announced in November 2023, at the same time as A Better Paradise. The first format is a graphic novel (a comic book) which will be illustrated by Simon Bisley. This graphic novel was due to arrive last year and was postponed to 2025, without further details.
Recently, Dan Houser confirmed that American Caper would also be adapted into a paperback:
American Caper will be a detective story, featuring two American families. On one side, we have the Chamers, a family described as "so kind, and so happy." On the other, we have the Hamiltons, who are the opposite extreme, considered a typical American family that despises itself.
AbsurdAVerse, Absurd Ventures' big project?
Finally, Absurd Ventures' third intellectual property will be AbsurdAVerse. At the moment, we have very little information about the latter, but everything suggests that it will be a kind of Metaverse or Multiverse that will bring together several universes, stories, and characters from the different worlds and productions of Absurd Ventures.
Recently, Dan Houser confirmed that the AbsurdAVerse will be a satirical and comedic universe, mainly composed of animation projects:
To date, we know that the AbsurdAVerse will have the right to three adaptations with two animated series projects and one open-world action comedy video game project.
Clearly, Absurd Ventures has very big ambitions (especially when we see the big recruitments that have been made by the studio). As Dan Houser pointed out, the goal is really to create the best possible projects in each area.
During a recent roundtable discussion held at GDC 2025, Cameron Williams, a former Rockstar Games member who worked on Red Dead Online and GTA 6, once again emphasized how much Absurd Ventures wants to do things right, particularly by offering an open world that is different from other open-world games that no longer manage to make players dream:
This year, Absurd Ventures should unveil several of their projects, including Volume 2 and the novel of A Better Paradise. The first information on the comic and the paperback book American Caper. As well as the first video game from AbsurdAVerse.
Here is the list of all the projects currently underway within the studio, according to the specialized media Absurd Ventures Mag’:
| PROJECT NAME | PROJECT TYPE | RELEASE DATE |
| A Better Paradise, Vol.1 | Audio Fiction | Already available (June 2024) |
| A Better Paradise | Roman | Autumn |
| American Caper | Graphic Novel | 2025 |
| A Better Paradise, Vol.2 | Audio Fiction | Coming soon |
| A Better Paradise | Video game | Coming soon |
| A Better Paradise | TV Series | Coming soon |
| American Caper | Paperback | Coming soon |
| Unannounced project (AbsurdAVerse) | Video game | Coming soon |
| Unannounced project (AbsurdAVerse) | Animation Project | Coming soon |
| Unannounced project (AbsurdAVerse) | Animation Project | Coming soon |
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