Dan Houser, the co-founder and creative lead of Rockstar Games, will step away from the company come March of this year. The studio’s holding company, Take-Two Interactive, suggests that this is no cause for alarm.
The news of Houser’s departure follows an “extended break” that began last spring. The move came as a bit of a shock, and Take-Two didn’t initially provide any defining details regarding the decision. All of the information provided to the public was registered by the company as part of an SEC, 8-K document filed early last week.
“Dan Houser’s last day will be March 11, 2020. We are extremely grateful for his contributions. Rockstar Games has built some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful game worlds, a global community of passionate fans and an incredibly talented team, which remains focused on current and future projects,” reads the report.
There is no mention of Sam Houser, Dan’s brother and the current president of Rockstar Games, in Take-Two’s briefing. A statement released by Rockstar, however, confirms that Sam’s position at the company will remain unchanged.
Rockstar was founded by the brothers in 1988 and is responsible for building some of the most popular titles in gaming, including Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Red Dead Redemption. The brothers played a critical role in the production and widespread success of nearly all of the studio’s landmark franchises. Not everyone is a fan of the sordid, rough-and-tumble nature of GTA or sprawling, open-world languor of RDR, but there is no denying the Rockstar’s ability to produce games of cultural impact and commercial success.
Dan, specifically, has writing credits on almost every major title that the publisher has touched in the last twenty years, including recently released Red Dead Redemption 2. His hand has been a guiding force for the company and now serves to pull Rockstar’s future into question. Will the company’s creative direction stall without him?
Take Two’s stock price dipped significantly following the news of Dan’s departure, dropping nearly 15 points in just the last three days. To stave off scrutiny from investors, Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick, spoke about the company’s future during a recent earnings call. Things “couldn’t be better,” he says.
“In terms of team stability, Sam Houser is president of Rockstar Games. He founded Rockstar Games, he’s a great player/coach, and he leads a team of thousands of people every day who are trying to make the most extraordinary entertainment experiences known to man.”
With investors already questioning the certainty of Rockstar’s future, Take-Two’s purport that everything is fine likely serves to extinguish the growing internal and public concern surrounding the company’s next steps. Both GTA and Red Dead Online have big years ahead, and rumors of GTA 6 and a Bully sequel are already surfacing. There certainly is a lot on the plate for Rockstar this year. Fans and investors will just have to wait to see how the studio fares in Dan Houser’s absence.
