Dan Houser Still Hasn't Watched GTA 6's Extended Look and Plans to Avoid It

Dan Houser still has not watched GTA 6’s Extended Look, and for now he wants to keep it that way. The Rockstar co-founder and former GTA writer discussed it on Variety’s Strictly Business podcast, published on October 2, 2026. Apple Podcasts

Houser says he tries to avoid work that could distract him or influence his own creative process too strongly. With Absurd Ventures now developing open-world projects, GTA 6 sits very close to the work he wants to approach on his own terms. VGC

Open-world games create a particular problem for him. While playing, he starts identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different teams and imagining the production decisions behind each system, so he ends up taking the game apart instead of simply playing it. That is why he says he does not play many open-world games while working on his own. VGC

When work began on Red Dead Redemption, Houser stopped watching westerns. He also held off on the full run of The Sopranos until after he left Rockstar, because he believed something he admired that much could influence his work too heavily. VGC

His distance from GTA 6 follows the same pattern.

Houser left Rockstar in 2020 and later founded Absurd Ventures, which is developing two open-world games. One is described as a comedy action-adventure and the other as considerably less comedic. VGC

That puts him close to the design territory Rockstar is exploring with GTA 6, and he wants to find his own answers before looking at someone else’s.

What Houser did not say

Houser did not criticize GTA 6 or frame the decision as a dispute with Rockstar. His explanation is about creative influence: he avoids work that could enter his thinking too easily while he is making something similar, and for now GTA 6 is on that list.

Sources

Variety / Strictly Business — full Dan Houser interview

VGC — Dan Houser still hasn’t seen GTA 6

Last verified: October 6, 2026.