what if dan houser still on the rockstar?

[suprieat28]

my prediction maybe we would get gta 6 early like in 2019 and pushed back red dead 2 from 2019 to 2022 maybe despite being the most succesful franchise they would continue making gta games UNTIL they r dead

[NightmanCometh96]

Even if Dan Houser were still with R*, I imagine the release schedule would be pretty similar to how it is now (one game every ~5-7 years). Although, without the COVID pandemic throwing a wrench into things, it's likely that VI would have been further along in development (perhaps even released by now). The main reasons R*'s in-house, brand new releases have such long gaps between them are:

• They're always looking to push the envelope with what they can do (rereleases notwithstanding). Naturally, this means each project expands in scope over the last.
• The simple fact that video games have been taking much longer to make than they used to (on top of becoming more expensive to produce), especially since the start of the 8th Console Generation. This is an industry-wide thing, it's not just R*.
• For better or worse, the immense Shark Card revenue ensures that R* has a steady source of income in between their new games. As such, they and Take-Two aren't in any "rush" to bring out the next GTA, Red Dead, etc..
• Building on the above reasons, R* has switched to an "all hands on deck" workflow ever since GTA V released. Instead of having each branch of R* do its own thing (North with mainline GTA, Leeds with portable titles/spin-offs, San Diego with Midnight Club and Red Dead, etc.), all of the studios across the globe collaborate on one large project. The unfortunate side effect of this is that any smaller-scale games that would have released in between the heavy hitters have essentially been replaced with the umpteenth GTAO update.
  • This is also a factor in why rereleases are never done in-house, aside from the 8th and 9th Gen versions of V; the other (and bigger) reason is that R* vehemently dislikes revisiting their legacy titles. DE rant below:

Spoiler

I don't think their mindset justifies handing off remasters to small, mobile-oriented studios, but that's just me. Most people seem to be okay with it as long as whatever R*'s next in-house title is turns out to be great. (I'm fine with and understand the outsourcing itself, just not the "mobile ports made as quickly as possible by the cheapest developers available" side of things. Thankfully, R*/T2 have done some course correcting here; having Double Eleven handle the solid but barebones RDR1 PS4/Switch ports and tasking Video Games Deluxe with fixing the mess that Grove Street Games made with the Trilogy, although I'm not getting my hopes up for the latter's changes to ever make their way to consoles/PC.)

 

That said, I'm fairly certain RDR2 would have released before VI regardless of whether or not Dan were still working with the company right now. I get the impression that Red Dead 2 was meant to be his swan song/proper send-off, but it's possible that he may have contributed to VI in some capacity (I doubt it would be anything major, though).

Edited February 18, 2024 by NightmanCometh96

[HenriqueV5]

Man, I still feel sad remembering that he left.

[KEK540]

Considering how many former Rockstar writers went on to work with him in his new company absurd ventures, I think they will likely continue to have worked outsourced to them through Rockstar. Idea being Rockstar catches flak for overworking employee's ahead of RDR2's release, Dan goes on a Sabbatical after release. A little over a year later he resigns, followed shortly after by Lazlow and Michael Unsworth. Then he announces his new weird "studio" (more like a creative consultancy) for games and TV. Then a number of those ex-Rockstar creatives end up working at Absurd Ventures. My theory is that they didn't want to comply with the new culture Rockstar has been trying to foster so it's possible that they will work as consultants on both existing and future Rockstar projects.

[LowTierDude]

Bear in mind that he wasnt the only writer on that. Rupert has been around since 4 and that was when the quality of storytelling really took off.

 

 

[DeltaV20]

i mean his brother is still the president of rockstar games ,  Sam Houser probably share things and talk about projects with him