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Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser's next projects are a graphic novel and an audio drama
Rockstar Games co-founder and ex-creative director Dan Houser's new studio Absurd Ventures has announced its first projects: a graphic novel and an audio drama.
Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser is leaving the company
It's the end of an era at Rockstar Games -- parent company Take-Two Interactive has revealed that Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser is leaving on March 11th. It wasn't clear just why Houser was departing (we've asked for comment), but Houser was already on an "extended break" that started in spring 2019. His brother Sam Houser is still with Rockstar as its president.
Grand Theft Auto masterminds crash into AIAS Hall of Fame
Rockstar heads Leslie Benzies, Dan Houser and Sam Houser are the 18th, 19th and 20th inductees into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, joining previous winners Gabe Newell, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier, John Carmack, Mark Cerny, Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuck, and Tim Sweeney, among other luminaries. The Houser brothers founded Rockstar Games in 1998 and acquired Benzies' studio, DMA Design, in 1999. It became Rockstar North, the hub of Grand Theft Auto development. Microsoft Corporate Veep Phil Harrison will present Benzies and the Housers at the DICE Awards on Thursday, February 6. "A rare combination of cultural savvy, technical prowess and a deep passion for interactive entertainment has made Rockstar Games a global success story that has helped propel the games medium forward," Harrison says in a press release. "I am proud and honored to present Leslie, Sam and Dan with this award on behalf of the entire industry." AIAS calls out specific franchises as examples of Rockstar's impact on the industry, as both developer and publisher: Grand Theft Auto, Bully, Red Dead Redemption, Manhunt, The Warriors and LA Noire. We'll be running a liveblog of the DICE Awards on Thursday, starting at 7:30PM PT. [Image: Rockstar Games]
Grand Theft Auto 5 gameplay tops 100 hours of the American dream
We knew Grand Theft Auto 5 was going to be big. Los Santos is the largest Grand Theft Auto map to date and it has "20 movies' worth of score" – and all of this adds up to 100 hours of gameplay across the campaign, side quests and back alleys of the city, Rockstar Creative Director Dan Houser tells The Guardian. Houser says GTA5 is so massive because he wants to get intimate with the three main protagonists and allow players to explore ideas of classic Americana as perceived through the veil of spray-on tanner. There are no playable female characters in GTA5 because "the concept of being masculine was so key to this story," he says. "LA is this embodiment of 20th century American desires: the houses, the gardens, the tans, all slightly fake," Houser says. "It's the end of the western world – the suns sets and then it's tomorrow. But the industry is movies or, equally phoney, real estate. It's people trying to escape their pasts and reinvent themselves. If GTA 4 was a classic New York story, this is the endpoint of the American dream." Rockstar spent 100 days on "research trips" to LA: "Out and about, all night long with weird people, strange cops showing us around, a lot of first-hand research. We spoke to FBI agents that have been undercover, experts in the Mafia, street gangsters who know the slang – we even went to see a proper prison. These poor buggers in the middle of the salt flat desert, miles away. It was eye-openingly depressing." Sounds like a great foundation for a fun-filled game – or even a movie. Rockstar has been approached multiple times to make a Grand Theft Auto film, but it's not worth the risk, Houser says. "We've been offered, many times, and it's never appealed. The money's never been close to be worth risking one's crown jewels."
Why Grand Theft Auto 5 is sticking to current-gen systems
Rockstar isn't holding Grand Theft Auto 5 for the next generation of consoles, whenever they may appear, because the current generation is "mature" enough to handle what the game has to offer, studio co-founder Dan Houser tells Famitsu (reported by Polygon). Besides, Rockstar isn't about to let any console tell it how to live its life."Rockstar is a content company, not a hardware company," Houser says. "We use the technology we have to create content, and we try not to let ourselves get beholden to the hardware. The fact that hardware's so mature right now is exactly why we're able to go on to the next level. GTA 4 was our first attempt at a new platform and HD visuals, so the first part of development was seriously difficult. Now we know what the hardware's capable of, so it's become a lot easier to move things along and a lot more fun, too."Rockstar isn't only familiar with development for the current generation, but the consoles themselves are at their peak performance, Houser says:"GTA: San Andreas came out at the peak of the PlayStation 2's cycle, and we put out a really good game thanks to that. All the best games for a console come out at the end of the life cycle, right? So now's the best timing of all."The second trailer for Grand Theft Auto 5 dropped today, starring the three main protagonists and a dog.
Grand Theft Auto 5's trio inspired by GTA 4 DLC storyline crossover
"It was partly just to do something totally new," Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser told the Guardian about the use of three separate protagonists in Grand Theft Auto 5. "Partly, too, it was because at that point we were deep into the work on the two DLC episodes of GTA IV, and we thought, well, the bits where all the stories cross over is kind of cool, so why don't we just do that in one game? So okay, let's just do multiple characters."The storyline of the game – and remember, GTA games have storylines when you're not just trying to jump motorcycles over buildings or create impressive piles of exploded fire trucks – follows a series of five to six "mega-heists" (the Guardian's term), and three characters who are all involved with the jobs, and with each other.In fact, the protagonists spend more time hanging out together than with other NPCs, Houser said. "If you're playing as Michael and you want to play a game of tennis, you can call up Franklin and ask him. You are actually getting to see the main bulk of the story and also spend time with these people off-mission – that side of it gives it a vibrancy that's a lot stronger than with [Grand Theft Auto 4's] Roman or anyone else."
Marvel and Rockstar developing free digital Max Payne 3 comic
If Max Payne were a superhero, he'd probably be named Shooter, and after a stint in a time paradox where he fights dinosaurs and artificially intelligent robot armies over a period of 15 years, he'd come back from the "dead" with a new superhero name: Balder.Or he'd just be called Max Payne.Rockstar and Marvel are taking that second suggestion with a new three-part digital comic series to "delve into Max's troubled past," covering events in Max Payne and Max Payne 2, leading up to Max Payne 3. Original Max Payne writer Sam Lake is co-authoring the series with Rockstar bossman Dan Houser, who is penning the game itself. The comics will feature pencil and inking by Fernando Blanco and cover art from Greg Horn, among others.The Max Payne 3 digital comics will be available for free on Rockstar Newswire, the official Max Payne 3 site and "additional digital comics channels." The first issue is called "After the Fall" and will launch in the next few weeks, Rockstar says.
Max Payne 3 'crews' carry over into Grand Theft Auto V multiplayer
The "crews" Max Payne 3 players form in mulitplayer mode will transfer directly to Grand Theft Auto V multi, Rockstar co-founder and fancy mansion owner Dan Houser told IGN. Grand Theft Auto V will share Max Payne 3's crews via Rockstar's Social Club."Multiplayer is an ever-more important part of all our games moving forward," Houser said. "And by creating crews through Social Club, the crews that you create in Max Payne 3 will be ready and available for you to play in Grand Theft Auto V from day one."After news of this crossover, we can imagine other Social Club integration possibilities -- Red Dead Redemption would have majestic horses galloping through the glittery streets of Los Santos, dodging bullets and rampaging cars alike. Horses; horses everywhere.
Rockstar head Houser nabs Capote mansion for $12.5 million
Dan Houser is the vice president of Rockstar Games. Rockstar Games makes some astoundingly popular games -- games that have net him quite a bit of dough over the years. So what does a super rich New Yorker with a flair for the creative do with all that dough? He buys a $12.5 million house, of course. And not just any house, but Truman Capote's original haunt in New York's Brooklyn Heights neighborhood (in "Broker" for all you GTAIV fans).The beautiful canary yellow house features 18 rooms (11 bedrooms alone) and its $12.5 million asking price is the largest tag attached to a house in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood (as in, "of all time"). Houser also owns a loft on Greene Street in lower Manhattan, making the new locale his "vacation home." At least that's what we assume people refer to their Brooklyn homes as when they also own property in Manhattan. Those bridges are pretty long, ya know![Image credit: StreetEasy]
Rockstar's Dan Houser still cold on 3D
As Max Payne reinvents himself for the modern generation, don't expect him to lean too hard into the brave new world of 3D. Rockstar's Dan Houser told Variety he's still unimpressed with the tech (even if it's possible Max Payne 3 will include it on PC). "I don't think anyone has solved the riddle of how you make 3D an integral part of the gaming experience," he told the publication. We'd like to take a moment here to take a firm stance in favor of utterly non-integral gaming innovations. Isn't that the whole point of 3D, sort of a George Mallory on Everest "Because it's there" type thing? We want to say here and now that the moment 3D has a purpose, we're gonna start pushing for 4D, and just wait until you see the glasses you'll need for that.
Take-Two renews employment agreement with Rockstar bosses
As part of its latest financial report, Take-Two announced that it has renewed its employment agreement with "key members of the creative team of Rockstar Games." Namely, both Sam and Dan Houser, along with Leslie Benzies, have renewed their agreements on "substantially similar economic terms." Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick spoke highly of the Rockstar team, alluding to it as "the best creative talent in the industry." He added that Take-Two looks forward to working with Rockstar for "many years to come." In other words, it looks like Take-Two is holding on tightly to what is undoubtedly its biggest gun.
Rockstar's Dan Houser on transmedia and building L.A. Noire
The Hollywood Reporter chatted with Rockstar's Dan Houser at the Tribeca Film Festival (where L.A. Noire is being shown off as an "interactive screening") and he said that, despite all of the attempts at solid transmedia properties recently, "no one has done it very successfully yet." The issue, in his opinion, is that companies are all too often going for money rather than what's right for the medium. "Too often, however," he said, "the aim appears to be to cash-in on the success of a particular game, book, pop singer, website, etc., and that usually produces mediocre results." Houser also said that Rockstar has "explored a lot of movie deals," but wants to stick with games for the moment. He's personally enamored with two genres: The Western, which was explored in Red Dead Redemption, and film noir, which developer Team Bondi plays with in this latest game. Providing some insight into its development, Houser said that his company "employed a massive number of actors in the game –- over 400," along with "hair and make-up artists, a great television director ... and a lot of original costumes, props and other research from the studios themselves" to recreate the golden era of Hollywood. We'll see if Rockstar can make up that virtual fedora budget on May 17.
As if you needed an explanation for this Zombie Bear
There are no doubt certain sticklers for authenticity who have problematized the spread of zombies in next week's Red Dead Redemption add-on Undead Nightmare. "The undead simply do NOT belong in the heretofore historically accurate RDR canon. Period," reads one hypothetical tweet, which might echo the thoughts of others. Perhaps giving voice to these naysayers, GameSpot has questioned Rockstar boss Dan Houser on the matter. "We wanted the game world to feel like a 1970s movie set," Houser explained, "in which by day people shot a serious revisionist Western and by night some maniacs invaded the studio and filmed a somewhat insane horror movie using the same sets and cast." Well, good, that certainly closes the book on the issue for us -- though we do wonder about Houser's suggestion that "it simply was not what people expected." We've been pretty much stockpiling weapons in heated anticipation of a zombie apocalypse at least since '02. Now, if you'd thrown a transforming steam-powered hovertrain locomotive that flies through time at us? That would've been totally unexpected, not to mention an accepted fact of revisionist history.
Rockstar vets cement long-term deal with Take-Two
For brothers who've become popular creating games starring characters who seek out freedom from society's corporate machine this is a strange move but not unexpected. Take-Two Interactive have announced a new long-term agreement with "key members of the creative team" behind Grand Theft Auto IV, including Sam (pictured) and Dan Houser. Terms of the agreement would see the team locked into an publishing deal with Take-Two until January 31, 2012. The arrangement also includes a new incentive compensation program for the Rockstar Games label and an agreement from Take-Two "to fund the future development of certain new intellectual property to be owned by a newly formed company controlled by key Rockstar Games team members." Our guess? Lemmings Kart Racing. Believe.
Take-Two cements long-term agreement with Rockstar 'senior creative talent'
The Houser brothers aren't going anywhere -- at least not anywhere that's out of the reach of Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two. The company has announced a new long-term employment agreement with "key members of the creative team" behind Grand Theft Auto IV, including Rockstar rockstars, Sam and Dan Houser. The initial term of the agreement runs out on January 31, 2012 -- and by then the world will be close to ending for everyone, not just Take-Two.Also noted in the agreement is a new incentive compensation program for the Rockstar Games label, as well as Take-Two's intention to fund a new intellectual property "to be owned by a newly formed company controlled by key Rockstar Games team members." Whatever this mystery property entails, it will be published exclusively by Take-Two. Do we detect shades of Bungie and Microsoft?
Houser unsure if GTA IV DLC will release this year
Rockstar Games' Dan Houser isn't positive that the exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content for Xbox 360 will make a 2008 release. In an interview with Variety, when asked directly if he expects the DLC to release this year, the Don of GTA fesses up he's "not sure" and hopes to announce a release date in the next few weeks.Despite Microsoft's reassurances, a delay to early next year wouldn't be wholly unexpected, with the rumor mill spewing forth a January or February release date. Really, though, does anybody have time for another romp through Liberty City when there's Sera, The Ishimura, Africa and our imaginations to visit?
Edge gets up close and personal with GTA: Chinatown Wars
Edge has posted an extensive (and extremely positive) hands-on preview of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, describing Rockstar's DS debut in luscious detail.The overriding message seems to be: Chinatown Wars on the DS really works, in the sense that it feels like any other Grand Theft Auto title. Despite the hardware limitations, Liberty City comes across as a living, breathing city, with civilians who exit and enter houses, get into cars, engage in conversation with one another, purchase snacks from fast-food carts, and put up umbrellas when it rains. Assisting this illusion is a full day and night cycle, along with a dynamic weather system and realtime shadowing.As you'd expect, any vehicle can be hijacked (and driving an ambulance to people in need is one way of making some extra cash), and your surroundings can be trashed, too -- Edge mentions how "fences, street lamps, and newsstands can all be smashed aside." Meanwhile, driving does feature a "little bit of auto-alignment." According to Rockstar's Dan Houser, this is to "make the driving a little forgiving, without it feeling like you're wearing armbands or something." When out of your car, a stun gun and flamethrower are just two of the weapons you'll be able to use. Toasty.Houser also discusses how missions have been made shorter, to accomodate shorter bursts of play, and describes one "outlandish" errand where hero Huang Lee robs a bank and escapes through Chinatown by blending into a parade, disguised as a dragon. Hit up the full preview at the link below, and don't forget to stop by our gallery!%Gallery-35102%
Pachter predicts bidding war over Rockstar's Houser brothers
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter sees another challenge for Take-Two Interactive, suggesting that the company could lose the talent behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise. In Pachter's latest analyst note, he details the possible loss of Sam and Dan Houser of Rockstar when their contract expires this upcoming February.Pachter expects that when their contracts expire this February, Sam and Dan Houser of Rockstar could either depart Take-Two -- robbing the company of the driving force force behind its best-selling series -- or stay on at considerable expense. The analyst explains that a Houser departure would be analogous to EA's Medal of Honor team departing to produce Activision's Call of Duty franchise -- GTA would still live on, but it probably wouldn't be the same sales powerhouse sans the Houser brothers.
Rockstar's Dan Houser disses casual gaming, explains process of rebuilding NYC
Dan Houser, Vice President of creativity for Rockstar Games, has apparently never enjoyed the visceral thrill of creating a Mii in his own likeness and entering the boxing ring with a similarly Mii-ified version of Adolf Hitler -- or else we assume he wouldn't have dropped the following foul-mouthed quote in an interview with New York Magazine: "Yeah, fuck all this stuff about casual gaming." Poignant, no?He goes on to explain that while the warm reception of Nintendo's latest console is "fantastic", gamers still want games with production values and narratives that rival those of big-budget movies, much like the titles produced by Rockstar. The rest of the interview is actually a very intriguing look at how the Grand Theft Auto IV team meticulously built a city using the Big Apple as their inspiration, but something tells us that the rest of the story might get overshadowed by that one particular sound bite.
Rockstar's Dan Houser talks (and talks and talks) GTA 4
Rockstar President Dan Houser doesn't talk to the press much, but when he does, he lets it aaaaaaall out. Variety's Cut Scene blog sat down with Houser and helped him deliver a 90-minute, 6371 word treatise on everything from the potential for a Grand Theft Auto movie to a comparison of console storage capacities.Those with shorter attention spans would probably rather check out the condensed profile article, where Houser reveals the thinking behind his relatively low profile: "While (people) may find it interesting in the short term to read whatever crap I have to say, in the long term, the less they know about us, the more they are able to lose themselves in the world of our games." That's a good point, but as members of the gaming press, we'd appreciate it if our readers were able to get lost in whatever crap you have to say and then lose themselves in the world of your games. It would work out, like, 1,000 times better for us, is all.Read – Summary profileRead – Extended interview
