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Dan Houser, a former co-boss of Rockstar Games and creative director on the Grand Theft Auto franchise, has stated that he does not play many open-world games and does not plan to play GTA 6. He explained to Variety that he avoids these titles to prevent them from influencing his work on two upcoming game projects at his new enterprise, Absurd Ventures. Houser noted that he prefers to focus on new methods rather than comparing his work to others or thinking about alternative design choices.
To protect his creative process from external disruption, Houser deliberately distances himself from media similar to his active projects. While working on Red Dead Redemption, he avoided watching other Westerns, and he did not watch The Sopranos until after leaving Rockstar. He explained that watching such high-quality work during development would have disrupted his efforts on GTA. When he does play open-world games, he finds himself distracted by deconstructing the strengths and weaknesses of development teams in real time.
Meanwhile, Houser's new studio, Absurd Ventures, is actively developing two games. The company has also released a graphic novel series titled American Caper, with its double-sized season-finale issue scheduled to launch next month, just one week before the release of GTA 6, alongside the book A Better Paradise.
