Rockstar Games Co-Founder Dan Houser Announces New Studio, Absurd Ventures

Rockstar Games co-founder and Grand Theft Autio writer Dan Houser has officially announced Absurd Ventures.

Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser has announced @AbsurdVentures

Per release, Absurd is “building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a diverse variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation; video games… pic.twitter.com/KTHP510SMq

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) June 15, 2023

As spotted by Geoff Keighley, Houser’s new studio is “building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories 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.” Based on the quote, Absurd Games will dabble in other forms of media beyond video games. 

Since 2021, it had been strongly implied that Houser started a new studio after Absurd Ventures in Games had been registered in the United Kingdom, with the business listing mentioning that Dan Houser was a director at the studio. Though details on the company were sparse at the time. Dan Houser co-founded Rockstar Games in 1998 with his brother, Sam, and three others. However, in early 2020, Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive announced that Houser had resigned from the company.

Houser played a big role in Rockstar Games’ history beyond just co-founding. This includes serving as a writer on almost everything Grand Theft Auto game and as a writer for every installment released in the Red Dead Redemption franchise to date, including serving as the executive producer for Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2 and Red Dead Online. 

Absurd Games has yet to announce its first project, but hopefully, the studio will share more information soon. 

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.