Dan Houser, the Rockstar Games co-founder who wrote and produced GTA III through GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, Bully, and Max Payne 3, has not watched the extended reveal for Grand Theft Auto 6 and says he intends to keep it that way.
Houser left Rockstar in 2020 to found Absurd Ventures, where he is currently developing two open-world games. Speaking in a recent interview, he explained that avoiding GTA 6 is a deliberate creative decision, not indifference.
Why the man who built GTA is skipping GTA 6
"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. The reasoning is straightforward: he spends most of his working hours building open-world games, and watching the most anticipated open-world release in history would inevitably pull his thinking toward comparison rather than creation.
Here's the thing, it is a genuinely disciplined position for someone in his situation. Houser is not avoiding GTA 6 out of bitterness or detachment. He is protecting the creative headspace that lets him develop something original.
The deconstruction problem
Houser expanded on why open-world games specifically are difficult for him to engage with as a player. "I find when I play them, I can almost deconstruct the strengths and weaknesses of the team in real time and it's distracting," he said. He described the experience as constantly evaluating animation departments, game design decisions, and the internal meetings that probably produced specific features, rather than just playing.
That kind of hyper-analytical response to games is not unusual among senior developers, but Houser frames it as a reason to stay away rather than lean in. His role at any studio, he explained, has never been to track what competitors are doing. That job belongs to other people on the team.
"I'm trying to think about new ways of doing it," he said. "So I'm always trying to find new things that haven't been done before, or that I can steal from older media."
What Absurd Ventures is actually building
Houser confirmed that Absurd Ventures has two open-world games in development. One is described as a comedy action-adventure title. The other is "definitely less of a comedy," which does not tell players much, but does suggest the studio is not locking itself into a single tone.
The brother dynamic here is worth noting. Sam Houser, Dan's brother, remains at Rockstar and is overseeing GTA 6. Dan is essentially building a competing open-world game while deliberately avoiding the biggest open-world game his brother's studio is making. The professional separation is intentional, and both seem to understand it.
What most players miss in this story is that Houser's creative philosophy has always worked this way. The original GTA games were not built by studying what other open-world games were doing. They were built from film, music, satire, and a specific cultural perspective. That same instinct is clearly still driving how he works.
GTA 6 is shaping up to be a significant release regardless of what Houser does or does not watch. The map is confirmed at twice the size of GTA 5, the game launches as a single-player experience (you can read more about what that means for multiplayer at launch), and the marketing around it has been relentless. If you want to get ahead before release, the GTA 6 pre-order guide covers everything you need to know about locking in your copy on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
