Dan Houser confirms Rockstar's Project Medieval was real, but it only exists in concept designs

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser confirms Project Medieval was real, but the studio never got very far with the idea and it only existed conceptually.

Dan Houser confirms Rockstar's Project Medieval was real, but it only exists in concept designs
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Senior Gaming Editor
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TL;DR: Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser confirmed the studio briefly explored a medieval fantasy game concept after Red Dead Redemption 2 but never advanced it beyond early ideas. With Grand Theft Auto 6 in development, Rockstar's future projects remain uncertain, though GTA 6's success could enable ambitious new ventures.

Dan Houser officially confirms that Rockstar Games was working on a medieval fantasy game at one point, but the project never actually took off and entered production.

Dan Houser confirms Rockstar's Project Medieval was real, but it only exists in concept designs 1

Back in 2019, rumor had it that Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar could make a huge departure with their next game--a new knight sim that traded Grand Theft Auto's guns for swords and shields. Rockstar had been in the throes of crafting Red Dead Redemption 2 for years, and after that project shipped, the team threw together a few rough concept ideas.

One of these was Project Medieval, a game that had been set in a new IP focused on gleaming armor and knight errantry. Up until now, Project Medieval has always been a somewhat dubious rumor, but Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser has officially confirmed that it was in concept phases at one point.

"Then [after RDR2] we played around with a knights concept, you know, knights and trying to do a sort of a version of a mythological game. That could've been fun, and I still love that idea, but we never went very far with it," Dan Houser said in a recent interview with Lex Fridman.

"We never got to writing any of it, just did some backstory and played around with a few ideas. But it's something that I thought I'd never do, then I kind of fell in love with it a little bit."

Rockstar currently has their hands full with Grand Theft Auto 6, which is one of the most anticipated entertainment releases on the planet. Then after GTA 6 comes continuous GTA Online content development, so it's unclear what Rockstar's next big AAA project will actually be. Whatever it is, though, GTA 6 may provide enough funding for Rockstar to do something truly wild and ambitious.