SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar Games and the creative force behind modern gaming's most lucrative franchises, is finally pulling back the curtain on his next era of interactive storytelling.
Since leaving Rockstar in 2020 and quietly establishing his new multimedia studio, Absurd Ventures, fans have eagerly awaited news on the company's interactive slate. While the studio has been busy releasing scripted fiction podcasts, comic books, and novels, Houser has officially confirmed that Absurd Ventures is actively developing two major video game projects tied to their newly established fictional universes.
With the backing of fellow Rockstar veterans like Lazlow Jones and Michael Unsworth, Houser's new team is taking massive creative swings. Here is what we know about the two upcoming titles.
The Absurdaverse: An Open-World Comedy
The first video game in development is set within the Absurdaverse, a universe dedicated entirely to comedy and satire.
According to Houser, the title will be a full-fledged open-world comedy game. Delivering a core gameplay loop driven entirely by humor is notoriously difficult in the open-world genre, but Houser notes the team is trying to lean heavily into “comedy and character memory”. The official tagline for the project ominously promises players will “meet new heroes and watch them suffer”.
While the game itself is still under wraps, the Absurdaverse has already begun to expand into other mediums. A series of animated comedy shorts set in the same universe debuted earlier this year at the Netflix Is A Joke festival in May 2026, featuring working comedians like Rachel Dratch, Dan Soder, and Annie Lederman. Houser confirmed that the studio plans to reveal more concrete information regarding the video game in the next few months.
A Better Paradise: A Self-Loathing Rogue AI
The second project takes a radically different tonal approach, diving into the dark, dystopian sci-fi universe of A Better Paradise.
Houser described the untitled game as a thriller about “a video game development gone very wrong, and about a rogue AI that discovered sentience”. However, the narrative features a deeply psychological twist: the AI was created by two developers who absolutely despised each other. Because it was born from their mutual hatred, the newly sentient AI ends up hating itself.
A Better Paradise is already an established intellectual property for Absurd Ventures. The studio previously launched a 12-part fiction podcast in 2024 titled A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath, and is currently preparing to launch an accompanying novel. The video game will expand directly upon this established lore.
While release dates and target platforms for both titles remain tightly under wraps, Houser's desire to experiment with new intellectual property proves that the architect of Grand Theft Auto is far from finished pushing the boundaries of the medium.