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Dan Houser is the co-founder of Rockstar Games. He's been with the studio since the studio first began operations back in 1998. After taking an "extended break" starting Spring 2019, Houser will officially part ways from the company he helped build.
Rockstar parent company, Take-Two Interactive, made this news official with a brief report to the United States Security and Exchange Commision.
After an extended break beginning in the spring of 2019, Dan Houser, Vice President, Creative at Rockstar Games, will be leaving the company. 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.
Houser is known for being relatively media shy, having conducted very few press interviews over the years. The last public interview given by Dan Houser was back in 2018. Afterwards, he drew a fair bit of controversy after talking about how the Red Dead team was often hitting 100-hour work weeks. It became such an issue that Houser had to issue a statement to try to clarify what he meant.
Houser was portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe in the 2015 made for TV movie The Gamechangers. This BBC produced drama focused on the development of the Grand Theft Auto games and the controversy surrounding them. The creators of The Gamechangers were actually hit with a lawsuit from Rockstar, though it was ultimately dismissed. Bonus fact, The Gamechangers also starred Bill Paxton as Jack Thompson. If you don't remember who Jack Thompson is, I must say that I greatly envy you. This was one of Bill Paxton's final roles before passing away in 2017.
Dan Houser's brother, Sam Houser, is another co-founder of Rockstar Games. According to a very brief statement from Rockstar, Sam's role at the company "remains unchanged." Sam Houser is currently the president of Rockstar Games.
