Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar Games and writer behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, launched a new media venture on Thursday that will create IP across formats.
Absurd Ventures is based in Santa Monica and will give Houser an opportunity to expand his focus outside of video games to include programming for live-action and animated shows, books and podcasts, the company said on Thursday.
"We are building Absurd Ventures to create new universes and to tell great stories, wherever and however we can," Houser said in a statement.
The gaming executive co-founded Rockstar Games with his brother Sam in 1998 and went on to help create some of the most popular video game franchises, including Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. In 2019, Houser took an "extended break" from the studio, which he served as vp creative, and formally left the company in 2020, according to a Feb. 2020 securities filing from parent company Take-Two Interactive.
Rockstar Games has not released another entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise since Houser's departure, though GTA VI is currently in the works but does not have a formal release date. But the game is expected to include a playable female character for the first time in franchise history and avoid jokes made at the expense of marginalized groups, as has been the case in past iterations of the game, according to a report last year from Bloomberg.
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