• News

Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser announces Absurd Ventures studio

The ex-Rockstar head and GTA architect will now lead a new studio.

Donovan Erskine

June 15, 2023 10:55 AM

Absurd Ventures

4

Rockstar Games is one of the gaming industry’s most coveted developers, primarily for the enduring success of franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. A lot of this DNA can be traced back to co-founder Dan Houser, who had helped lead the company for more than two decades before his resignation in 2020. He will now look to take his talents and wisdom to a brand new company. Absurd Ventures is a new studio from industry veteran Dan Houser.

Absurd Ventures was revealed in a press release sent out today. It gives us a better idea of what we should expect from this new gaming studio. “Absurd Ventures 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 and other interactive content; books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts.”

Absurd Ventures also has an official website, which does not feature a whole lot of information about the company itself, but it does set the tone with some creepy imagery. It also features a feed in which we can expect to see future announcements from the studio. Absurd Ventures also released a two-minute video that hammers home the company’s three core tenets: storytelling, philanthropy, and ultraviolence.

With some of the most successful games of the modern era on his resume, fans will likely have some high expectations from Dan Houser and Absurd Ventures. He’s just the latest industry veteran to break off and start their own independent studio. Be sure to bookmark our newly created topic page dedicated to Absurd Ventures for future updates.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_