Why GTA Studio Co-Founder Is Avoiding GTA 6–And All Open-World Games

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser left the company in 2020 and now runs a new outfit called Absurd Ventures. Houser will be forever connected to the GTA franchise, and he's now weighed in on GTA 6.

He told Variety that he did not watch the "Extended Look" trailer and doesn't plan to. Why? He said he tries to avoid consuming things that are going to "disrupt me creatively."

"And given that I spend a large amount of time trying to make open-world games, and the rest of my conscious time trying to figure out innovative ways to market them, I don’t need to see what other people are [doing]," he said. "I’m always trying to think about new ways of doing it, not sit there in some kind of comparison of what I would have done differently.”

Also in the interview, Houser said he doesn't play a lot of open-world games anymore, for similar reasons.

"I find when I play them, …