What does Dan Houser leaving Rockstar mean for GTA VI?
Just one more question… the team debate this month’s burning issue
IAN DEAN
EDITOR
FLAWED GENIUS DAN HOUSER’S WRITING MADE US CONNECT WITH OUR HEROES.
Red Dead Redemption 2 revealed the strengths and weaknesses of Dan Houser. It was like playing a time capsule. While open worlds in games have moved on, RDR2 chewed tobacco and refused to follow. In development for over seven years, influences waxed and waned as trends came and went. Yet Houser’s writing elbows itself front and centre and refuses to be ignored. The game, and Houser’s GTA series, forces us to care for the unlikeliest heroes. I’ll miss his nasty, funny, but often endearing characters as these were GTA; here’s hoping someone at Rockstar has been taking detailed notes.
JESS KINGHORN
STAFF WRITER
ROCKSTAR GAMES HAS PLENTY OF TIME TO FIND A REPLACEMENT; GTA V IS STILL PLEASING THE PLAYERS.
Much like how the loss of its lead writer doesn’t necessarily mean better writing in future instalments, my dislike of the series in general has little bearing on its high probability of future success. I’m a Yakuza woman myself but that doesn’t mean I want Rockstar to copy Sega’s homework. My kid sister’s 1AM effing and jeffing about the latest group of hoodlums to make off with her shipment of cocaine is a fine reminder of not only the fandom’s fervour but also how well that audience is catered to by the existing product. GTA VI? I don’t think Rockstar is in any hurry.
OSCAR TAYLOR-KENT
GAMES EDITOR
GTA VI COULD BE GTA ONLINE ONLY. HERE’S HOPING THE HOUSERS’ AMBITIONS HAVE LEFT THEIR MARK.
There are few gaming fans who haven’t been given a little smile by the Houser brothers’ criminal simulator. From the off it was never really a series that needed good writing to win people over, but the mixture of outrageous satire and drama added a lot nonetheless. Many of those moments stick with us. Given how successful GTA Online has been, I’m holding out hope that the single-player aspect will remain just as important going forward, thanks to the Housers’ ambitions. Hopefully traces of his aspirations remain even though Dan’s gone, as otherwise Online could usurp single-player.
MILFORD COPPOCK
MANAGING ART EDITOR
GTA WILL CARRY ON REGARDLESS; THE SERIES HOUSER HELPED BUILD IS TOO STRONG.
It’s feels strange to think Dan Houser won’t be around for another GTA, or indeed a Bully, Midnight Club, or Max Payne. This is a developer who has defined three generations of videogames, and to think any new GTA will be Houser-less is sad. And yet he’s laid the solid foundations for others to build on. I’d like to think his influence on the series is so strong that even without him GTA VI – whenever it arrives and whatever it is – will carry on in the same vein. You can’t really have a GTA that isn’t spiky, arrogant, filthy, and acerbic – a grubby mirror on modern living, a playground for our darker sides.