Featured Image Credit: Rockstar Games
Topics: GTA, GTA 6, Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto, Take-Two
Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser resigned from the company five years ago, but a recent Grand Theft Auto VI revelation has still come as a shock to fans.
Houser departed Rockstar Games in 2020, but many fans assumed that he’d assisted with GTA VI’s development ahead of that departure.
After all, it’s not far-fetched to assume that a game of this scale has been in development for half a decade.
Houser has a golden touch.
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Certainly, Rockstar Games succeeds because it’s a powerful collective, but as the lead writer on Red Dead Redemption, Bully, and several Grand Theft Auto titles, Houser was always a safe pair of hands to have at the helm of a project.
What has now been made clear though is that he didn’t participate in any writing whatsoever for GTA VI despite many assuming that he might’ve been involved in the early stages of scripting.
In a new interview with IGN, as reported by PC Gamer, Houser said, "They're always a new story. It's not going to be a story I wrote or a character set that I developed, but I think it's going to be exciting. The game will be great, I'm sure."
"It'll be a great privilege to have worked on something that big,” he said of his successors.
“I wrote the last 10 or 11 [GTAs]. I think the world's probably had enough GTA from me."
As for how fans have taken this update, well, they’re pretty split.
Some are wondering if GTA VI will feel lacking due to the absence of Houser’s input; others feel it’s an exciting new era for the franchise.
“A little expected but at the same time considering he left in 2020 and the game probably had its story written in 2019, it’s a bit sad to know officially this is the first GTA game without any of his input. At least Michael Unsworth has credits on VI,” declared Reddit user XavierEL1.
“Yeah even more evidence that the game didn’t start development before RDR2,” remarked Fair-Internal8445.
“I think the idea that Houser was the only reason R* released the calibre of games they have is disrespectful to all the devs that worked their asses off to make these games as amazing as they are,” stated Ashtro_.
“And that is ok. Dan was never the only writer. Plus everyone freaked out when Leslie left, until what happened shortly after,” timmlt pointed out.
I’m assuming he’s referring to Leslie Benzies first post-Rockstar title, the slated MindsEye.
Let’s be honest, GTA VI has done nothing yet to diminish our lack of faith within it.
Everything Rockstar Games has released has looked brilliant, so let’s hope the title continues to impress come release day on 26 May 2026.