Dan Houser Calls GTA Comparisons a Compliment but Wants New Games to Stand on Their Own

The developer wants to offer players something new.

Rockstar Games co-founder and Grand Theft Auto creator Dan Houser no longer works at the studio and is instead working on new projects at his own company, Absurd Ventures. In a recent interview with Variety, he discussed his approach to game development and shared his thoughts on having his new games compared to GTA.

According to Dan Houser, comparisons to GTA are in some ways “the ultimate compliment,” but he still wants his new projects to succeed on their own merits:

As for whether people will compare my games [to GTA]—I don’t know. In some ways, I hope that’s the greatest compliment you could ever get. On the other hand, I hope that some of our things can stand on their own two feet. It’s fine if you’ve made good things, but of course, if the new stuff isn’t as significant, it’s disappointing in some ways. But it’s still a privilege to create anything. Otherwise, you just drown in your past work forever.

Image source: Rockstar Games

He also shared that he experienced “immense pressure” while working on GTA and described how he copes with it:

I asked myself if I was making something as good as I possibly could, and if I was doing something I’d be proud of. Did it feel fresh and new? If so, let the chips fall where they may. And even if Rockstar games didn’t succeed, I was still proud of them if I thought we had done a good job. [New projects] will be the same. We can’t sit around thinking, ‘If this isn’t the greatest event in history, then I’m a failure.’ Because then you have to decide whether you’re a failure or a success, and it all feels the same anyway. The creative work itself matters, not what the market thinks of it.

Dan Houser has not yet announced when he plans to release his new games, while Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled for release on November 19, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles.

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