Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser’s new studio has landed a publisher for its first game, which is still untitled but is described by its creators as a “AAA, open-world, sci-fi action-adventure game” set in an original universe. Korean publisher Smilegate and Houser’s Absurd Ventures announced Wednesday that the two companies have teamed up to release the Rockstar co-founder’s first post-Grand Theft Auto game.
“Absurd Ventures was set up to tell new and different kinds of stories, and to create what I hope are interesting and compelling original experiences. This new game is an opportunity to go somewhere entirely different and to take players on an entirely new adventure,” Houser said in a statement. “I am excited to be going on this journey with the amazing team that we are building here at Absurd Ventures and am grateful that we are partnering with Smilegate who really understand and support our vision.”
Absurd Ventures’ sci-fi game is set in its homegrown A Better Paradise universe, which is described thusly on the studio’s website:
Set in the near future, A BETTER PARADISE tells the story of the ill-fated development of an ambitious but addictive digital game-world project led by inventor and psychologist, Dr. Mark Tyburn.
As the advanced software they developed began delivering unexpected and disturbing results, the team fell apart under strange circumstances and the project was abandoned. The game world and the super-intelligence within were discarded, left dormant and undiscovered. Until now.
While the A Better Paradise universe has not yet appeared in a game, Absurd Ventures did release an audio fiction series under the brand titled A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath, and plans to publish a novelization of the IP’s story in October. Absurd Ventures previously teased its larger Absurdaverse, which may be distinct from (or encompass) the A Better Paradise. Suffice it to say, Absurd Ventures has been laying groundwork for its fictional properties while it grinds away on actual game development.
Speaking of, Smilegate and Absurd Ventures said in Wednesday’s announcement that the A Better Paradise game is in “early development,” and is being written by the creative team of Houser, Lazlow Jones, and Michael Unsworth. Those three former Rockstar Games creatives worked on multiple GTA and Red Dead Redemption games during their tenures at that studio. Development at Absurd Ventures is being led by studio head Greg Borrud, previously GM of Niantic and co-founder of Pandemic Studios.
Rockstar Games announced in February 2020 that Dan Houser was leaving the company he co-founded, following an extended break that came after Red Dead Redemption 2’s 2018 launch. Houser started Rockstar Games with his brother Sam in 1998. Rockstar is best known for the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, as well as titles like Bully, Manhunt, and L.A. Noire. Dan Houser served as lead writer of Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, two of the biggest games, by sales, of the previous decade. Houser revealed his Absurd Ventures in 2023, promising to “create new IP across all platforms and for all formats.”
Smilegate was founded in 2002, and publishes games Crossfire and Lost Ark.
