GTA’s success ‘brought the US government down on us’, ex-Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser says

Dan Houser claims the success of Grand Theft Auto 3 and its subsequent sequels led to the US government using it as a scapegoat for society’s ills.

In an interview with The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio, Houser – who co-founded Rockstar Games then left in early 2020, having written and produced its biggest games including Grand Theft Auto 3-5, Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, Bully and Max Payne 3 – said the studio’s focus on games aimed at an older audience was questioned by some.

“It was this industry that we were saying had been for children, and now we were saying it was for adolescents and grown men – as well as for children, but we weren’t servicing the children market – and that seemed to us not that outrageous, but some people thought it incredibly offensive,” he explained.

Evans asked if the phrase “success solves all problems” was true in this situation, in that the game’s eventual popularity got people off Rockstar’s back, but Houser said the opposite was true.

“No, that was not our experience at all,” he replied. “Our experience was [that] success created loads of problems. It was just worth it to have fun and do what you would do.”

“What kinds of problems did success create?” Evans asked.

“Well, it brought the US government down on us,” Houser replied. “They decided we were the only people on the internet peddling pornography, apparently, which was ridiculous. And they nearly shut us down, we got fined a huge amount of money. It was very disruptive to the company, and some of my team members quit, and it was really tough.”

Asked why the US government was after Rockstar, Houser said they claimed it was “for matters of public decency”.

Suggesting the backlash was “mostly led by centrist democrats, and they wanted a media bogeyman”, Houser said: “They couldn’t go after Hollywood because they’re getting a lot of money out of Hollywood, and they couldn’t go after rap music as that had funky racial connotations, so go after video games. An easy bogeyman that didn’t understand the system.”

“So a bogeyman?” Evans asked. “Somebody to point at, saying ‘look, we’ve got all these real problems…'”

“‘…we’ve finally figured out the problems in America, it’s these idiots,'” Houser replied. “We were those idiots”.

While Houser didn’t specifically name the particular situation that led to the US government being “brought down” on Rockstar and parent company Take-Two, he was likely referring to the infamous ‘Hot Coffee’ incident, where modders found a hidden sex mini-game in GTA San Andreas that had been removed from the game but remained in its code.

Although it was impossible to access the mini-game through normal play, the ESRB re-classified the game from Mature to Adults Only, causing numerous retailers to pull it from shelves.

The Federal Trade Commission then announced a consent order with Rockstar and Take-Two which didn’t result in a fine, but did require them to take corrective steps including re-editing and re-release of the game at an estimated total cost of around $50 million.