Dan Houser is leaving Rockstar Games, the studio behind games like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, which he co-founded. Houser appears to have been on ‘extended leave’ since the spring of 2019. The reason is unknown.
After March 11, Dan Houser will officially leave the company. This is evident from a document that Take-Two Interactive has put online. That publisher owns the studio. The document does not give a reason for Houser’s departure, but does mention that the co-founder has been inactive since the spring of last year. He has been on leave ever since.
Take-Two does not provide substantive answers to questions from gamesindustry.biz about the departure. However, the publisher confirms to the website that the role of Sam Houser remains unchanged; he is the deputy director of Take-Two and the brother of Dan Houser. The brothers, along with three others, founded the studio Rockstar Games in 1998.
Dan Houser was deeply involved in his studio’s games. He had a major influence on games such as GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2. More than 150 million copies of those two games have now been delivered. Houser was involved in, among other things, writing the screenplay for Red Dead Redemption 2. He said in 2018 that the writing team, including himself, worked 100-hour weeks.
Red Dead Redemption 2