Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser debuts new media company, Absurd Ventures

Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games, has announced a new media company.

Following the news in 2021 that the ex-Rockstar boss has incorporated a new company in various regions, Houser has officially debuted Absurd Ventures which will “create new IP across all platforms and for all formats.”

“We are building Absurd Ventures to create new universes and to tell great stories, wherever and however we can,” said Houser in a prepared statement.

Alongside this announcement, the new company has launched www.absurdventures.com, where users can “register to receive exclusive content and company updates.”

Parent company Take-Two announced in February 2020 that Houser was set to leave Rockstar on March 11, 2020, following an “extended break” beginning in the spring of 2019.

The British writer, producer and voice actor co-founded Rockstar in 1998, alongside his brother Sam, Terry Donovan and Jamie King.

Dan Houser was a key figure behind many of the company’s most successful titles, having written or co-written almost all of the games in the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, as well as Bully and Max Payne 3.

Houser’s most recent titles, Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2, have alone sold a combined 150 million units.

In 2009, both Dan and his brother Sam were named in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people list. “The Housers are doing the work of Tom Wolfe, creating tapestries of modern times as detailed as those of Balzac or Dickens,” it said.

Despite their near-celebrity status as creators of some of the biggest games – and entertainment – in history, Dan and his brother have historically shied away from the spotlight and rarely conduct interviews.

Houser’s departure followed the 2016 exit of the influential former Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies, who later sued Take-Two Interactive for $150 million in unpaid royalties, alleging that the company tried to force him out after he took a sabbatical. The claim was settled in 2018.

Benzies founded his own studio, Build a Rocket Boy, in 2017. The Scottish studio is working on a new open-world game called Everywhere.