Rockstar Games co-founder unveils new studio with cryptic teasers

Rockstar Games co-founder and Grand Theft Auto writer Dan Houser has officially announced a new studio, named Absurd Ventures.

“Storytelling. Philanthropy. Ultraviolence,” reads the YouTube description for Absurd Ventures’ cryptic launch video. As for the video itself, it shows a series of futuristic and retro-futuristic clips, intercut with more mysterious text.

“Is it ok to dream again?” it asks. “Or will you just try to sell me something?”

House originally co-founded Rockstar Games in 1998 along with his brother, Sam, and three others. He remained at the company until his departure on 11 March, 2020.

His new studio, Absurd Ventures, won’t just be focusing on video games, though. A tweet from Geoff Keighley says that Absurd will be “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.”

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

Houser’s new studio has been in the works since 2021, with the company originally registered as Absurd Ventures in Games LTD here in the UK. The company listing states “Ready-made interactive leisure and entertainment software development” as the nature of the business.

However, it looks as though Houser’s plans have since extended beyond video games.

As well as co-founding Rockstar, he also served as a writer on numerous Grand Theft Auto games as well as every instalment of Red Dead Redemption to date. Additionally, he wrote Bully and acted as executive producer on L.A. Noire.

Absurd Ventures is yet to announce its first commercial project.

In other gaming news, Final Fantasy 16 has been described as the “personal masterpiece” of battle director Ryota Suzuki.