It Will Be “More Sad” To Miss Out On Making Future Red Dead Games Than GTA, Says Former Rockstar Boss
It is actually pretty common to see fans debating which Rockstar Games series is best – mainly Red Dead Redemption, Bully, and GTA –, since they’re all pretty iconic. But what may be even more intriguing and debated is when the creators themselves take sides.
That’s the case with Dan Houser, who left the studio a few years after the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, and he’s already worried about watching his favorite IP get a new chapter without his help this time.
Dan Houser Admits Watching A Future Red Dead Game Would Hurt More Than GTA
In a recent talk with the podcast Lex Fridman, Dan Houser spoke a bit about his future plans with his new studio and also looked back at his days at Rockstar, where he was a co-founder and writer.
As the current head of Absurd Ventures, he’s planning something pretty big: an ambitious and multimedia universe (called “Absurdaverse”) that will feature animation projects and a story-driven action-comedy adventure game.
And he sounds pretty excited for it, highlighting that it will be different from his previous works: “[I’m] pleased to be doing other stuff, excited for what we’re working on now”.
However, it seems his heart is also still thinking about a potential Red Dead Redemption 3 in the near future, since he’s been close to the franchise for more than 20 years and has become emotionally attached to it – even more than any GTA title.
“[Getting away from Red Dead Redemption] is a big change, and sad in a way. Because each of the [GTA] games was kind of a standalone story, it’s not quite the same”, explains Houser. “I think it probably would be, in some ways, sadder if someone continued on Red Dead, because it was a cohesive two-game arc. That might be more sad to hear someone working on that. But again, that probably will happen too. I don’t own the IP. That was sort of part of the deal – it’s a privilege to work on stuff, but you don’t necessarily own it”.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you’re Dan Houser), Rockstar Games didn’t mention that Red Dead Redemption can get a new chapter any time soon, since they are completely focused on GTA 6, which is probably the most anticipated game for 2026.
