End of an era!
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.
Bummer. Any idea if he’s leaving the gaming industry altogether?
Not sure if it’s related, but the scuttlebutt is that Take 2 has been applying intense pressure to Rockstar for them to increase the rate of their project development.
Also, the “after an extended break” wording is a curious way to begin that statement.
Looks like Sam Houser isn’t going anywhere.
“We have an incredibly valuable and rare goose that lays the most lucrative golden eggs in the industry. We should fuck with the goose and make it unhappy.”
Curiously, I feel like Rockstar has the opposite problem, specifically putting out new stuff without polishing the old stuff. Their games are entertaining and chock full of content, but it’s despite the awful user-experience. Seriously, it’s borderline infuriating how difficult it is to matchmake with friends, and that’s even before considering their lax or non-existing content moderation. It’s a modder/cheater’s paradise.
My co-op group was messing around with GTA Online this week, which is fantastic once you’re in an instanced session. However, it also does all sorts of dumb things, like it doesn’t even filter activities based on player count. Instead it just ejects random players from the lobby if you’re over the activity limit.
I’m guessing that with half the Housers remaining the workplace culture is going to… stay exactly how it is. Too bad for the employees.