Dan Houser Won't Play GTA 6, and He Says That's the Point

Dan Houser, the man who helped shape Grand Theft Auto into one of the biggest franchises in entertainment, has no plans to pick up GTA 6 when it arrives.

The former Rockstar Games co-boss and long-time creative lead on the series says he doesn't play many open-world games in general. That habit extends to his old studio's next big release, and his reasoning is creative rather than personal.

Houser is currently busy with two new game projects at Absurd Ventures, the company he founded after leaving Rockstar. By staying away from open-world titles, including the one his former colleagues are finishing, he hopes to keep his own ideas free from outside influence. If you're trying to build something original, the thinking goes, it helps not to absorb what everyone else in the genre is doing, even when that includes the series you spent years defining.

It's a notable stance given how much anticipation surrounds GTA 6. Millions of players are counting down to the release, and plenty of developers will study it closely for design lessons. Houser, who helped build the template many open-world games still follow, is choosing to sit it out.

None of this suggests bad blood or disinterest in his former team's work. It reads more as a deliberate discipline, the kind of creative hygiene that writers and directors often adopt when they're deep in a project. Avoiding a direct point of comparison also means Absurd Ventures can develop its identity on its own terms rather than being measured against the genre's biggest name.

Details on the two Absurd Ventures games remain limited, so it's unclear how closely either will resemble the open-world games Houser is steering clear of. What his comments do show is a creator who wants a clean break from his past work and is willing to skip one of the most anticipated releases in gaming to get it.