The biggest threat toGrand Theft Auto 6existed long before its first trailer dropped. At this point, it’s scarcely a surprise thatGTA 6is the most anticipated game of the year. A newGTAgame would be hotly sought after in any year, but especially now, with the almost 12 years' distance from the previous game andRockstar’s restrained marketing strategyhave ensured thatGTA 6dominates every gaming conversation. The gaming industry and consumers alike hold their breath:willGTA 6really cost $100? What will its online mode look like? Andwill it win GOTY?
But for all the enthusiasm around it, frankly,I’m worried aboutGTA 6. And it’s not the potential price point or even the silence around its release date that have got me down. (Though those weigh on my mind, too.) I can wait as long as I need to forGTA 6, whether I’m just biding my time until it comes out, or I have to wait even longer for a sale. I just hope it lives up to Rockstar’s standard of storytelling when it eventually gets here, and I have my reasons to doubt that it will.
Co-Founder Dan Houser Left Rockstar In 2020
GTA Will Never Be The Same
My concern is thatDan Houser’s departure from Rockstar Studios may have irreparably impacted the development ofGTA 6. Houser was one of the original founders of Rockstar, along with his brother Sam, and was widely considered one of the chief creative voices of the studio. He left Rockstar in February 2020, shortly thereafterfounding his own studiocalled Absurd Ventures. It put out a podcast series,A Better Paradise, in 2024, and has currently got a handful of multimedia projects in the works, including a comic series, a cartoon, and a pair of games set in its newly-minted Absurdaverse.
This is not to point the proverbial finger at Dan Houser or anyone else for his leaving Rockstar, which, for all intents and purposes, he appears to have done of his own volition and on the best of terms. Buthis departure has undeniably had an impact onGTA 6’s development cycle, allegedly beginning witha total development resetin the months after his departure. “A delayed game is eventually good,” and all that, but still, it’s hard for me to seeGTAasGTAwhen it’s coming from a post-Dan Houser Rockstar.
GTA’s Writing Was Defined By Dan Houser
Rockstar’s Loudest Creative Voice
It’s clear that, during the entirety of his tenure at the company,Dan Houser’s was the dominating voice and driving creative forceat Rockstar. He’s been involved inGTAsince it was a top-down series, and, along with his brother, is credited with giving the series its name (which was originallyRace’n’chase). He later took over as the sole writer ofGTA: London 1969, which, while much simpler than modern-dayGTA, still contains a kernel of his characteristic style.
Over time,Houser played a major role in developing the voice ofGTAinto its current form: a biting, ever-relevant satire of modern American life, culture, and capitalism. It’s a series that’s never shied away from bigger topics, while also having the good sense not to take itself too seriously. It’s captured the hearts of millions of players worldwide. It’s thanks to Houser’s work, perhaps more than any Game of the Year award, that players have come to expect industry-standard quality in storytelling fromGTA. And it’s thanks to Houser’s work, more than any marketing scheme, thatGTA 6is so hotly anticipated.
Houser is also the first writer credited on bothRed Dead Redemptiongames, a series with a decidedly different tone, but no less to say about American society and its discontents.
Rockstar games are known for their storytelling, and it’s apparent thatHouser had a major part in creating that reputation. It’ll be tough for the series to rally without him - hence the rumors of a total development reset after his departure in 2020. Houser apparently participated in the early stages ofGTA 6’s development - he departed the company a couple of years after work on the project is believed to have begun, following the release ofRed Dead Redemption 2in 2018.
Butit’s impossible to discern exactly how much he might have contributed toGTA 6before his departure. It’s possible he created the core concept or main characters, but even then, his contributions could range from a complete plot outline to a single-sentence premise. It’s also possible that the remaining team at Rockstar have since chosen to take the game in a new direction. Ultimately, I have to concede that we know too little about Houser’s involvement inGTA 6- and, for that matter, aboutGTA 6itself - to say how his departure impacted its development.
GTA 6 Could Still Be Great Without Dan Houser
Look At The Bright Side
Still, there’s a good chanceGTA 6could be every bit as good as previous entrieseven without Dan Houser’s involvement. Like all big-budget art forms, video game development is a collaborative process. We don’t know who’s writingGTA 6in Houser’s absence, but it’s likely that Rupert Humphries is on the team. He doesn’t have as long of a history withGTAas Dan Houser, but he’s an experienced writer who’s contributed to several of the series' entries, as well as bothRDRgames. I trustGTAin his capable hands, but it’ll undeniably be different without Houser involved.
And honestly,I wasn’t that crazy aboutGTA 5’s story. It’s perfectly solid, but it’s not the strongest in the series.GTA 5lacks a strong, central antagonist, and rushes through the rags-to-riches of it all to get to the big heists. It was overly ambitious in trying to make a triumvirate of protagonists work, and winds up shorting them all on much-needed character development.
And that’s not even to say I think Dan Houser’s lost his touch:Red Dead Redemption 2has one of the greatest video game narratives of all time, and I anxiously await whatever new stories Houser’s getting ready to tell with Absurd Ventures. However,I do thinkGTAcould use a new direction, whether that’s with Houser’s input or not. It already looks to be a lot more grounded thanGTA 5; after all, we know Lucia either starts or ends up in prison. Plus, the two protagonists being a sort of Bonnie and Clyde analogue sounds like the perfect kernel for a simple narrative grounded in real, relatable, emotional stakes.
I still worry aboutGTA 6. With every month that goes by without an official announcement by Rockstar, fans pile up more and more of their expectations and hopes on a game we hardly know the first thing about. Rockstar has a great track record when it comes to meeting and exceeding hopes, but as the time required for game development and complexity expected of triple-A releases balloon out of control, it’s difficult for anyone to keep up. Without Dan Houser involved, I knowGrand Theft Auto 6will be different - I just hope it’ll still be good.
