Dan Houser keeps things weird with new media startup Absurd Ventures

Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser has launched Absurd Ventures, a new startup specifically aimed at telling stories across all media.

Following his departure from Rockstar back in 2020, Dan Houser is back in the media spotlight with Absurd Ventures, a new company that wants to write scripts and stories for games, TV shows, film, graphic novels--the works. Having penned most of Rockstar Games' biggest hits, Houser has proven his ability to create unique and gritty stories across multiple genres and settings. Now he wants to bring his skills to a wider market and help create new IP across different media sectors.

"We are building Absurd Ventures to create new universes and to tell great stories, wherever and however we can," Houser said. The company's debut YouTube video is an enigmatic pastiche of pop culture references and iconography with a three-word tagline that feels straight out Natural Born Killers or A Clockwork Orange: "Storytelling, philanthropy, ultraviolence."

No one knows exactly what Houser is up to, but whatever it is, the Rockstar co-founder is keeping things decidedly weird. The Absurd Ventures website is compelling and artistic in its vision and execution and we could see some interesting things pop up from Houser and his new startup.

Houser is no stranger to wicked satire--the GTA games are filled with a distinct message that pokes holes in American society, often through the means of mockery and crude violence. The result has created a franchise that resonates not only with Americans, but with the rest of the world to the point of absurdity. Everything we've seen so far indicates that Absurd Ventures will indeed keep this trend going.

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