Rockstar Games co-founder and GTA writer Dan Houser leaves studio
The remaining Rockstar staff will carry on with planned upcoming projects
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Your support makes all the difference.Dan Houser is leaving Rockstar Games, the acclaimed video games company he co-founded with his brother in 1998.
Rockstar are one of the most successful games publishers in the business, having released best-selling titles including the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series.
His departure in March follows an “extended break”, according to Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar’s parent company.
Houser was a key creative force on many of Rockstar’s biggest projects, serving as a lead writer for the Grand Theft Auto franchise, as well as Red Dead Redemption and the 2006 high school-set game Bully.
Over the past two decades, Rockstar has earned enormous amounts of praise for their games, as well as criticism for the use of extreme violence and controversial adult content.
They are also renowned for their employment of “crunch” production tactics. “Crunch” refers to the excessively demanding work schedules employed by (predominantly American) game studios to ensure deadlines are met.
In 2018, Houser revealed that his team had been working 100-hour weeks in the run-up to Red Dead Redemption 2’s release.
Take-Two said it was “extremely grateful” for Houser’s work, and that the remaining team remained focused on upcoming projects, rumoured to include Grand Theft Auto 6.
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