Dan Houser's name is inseparable from GTA, which is hardly surprising given that his first video game credit was Grand Theft Auto, and with how he helped to steer the series into becoming a household name. What is surprising, however, is that his heart lies with Red Dead Redemption.
I think it probably would be, in some ways, sadder if someone continued on Red Dead, because it was a cohesive two-game arc.
First, a bit of history. In the '90s, Dan's brother Sam, working in a commissioning role at BMG Interactive, took on what was then called race'n'chase after being pitched by DMA Design (now Rockstar North). The concept was simple: a top-down open world sandbox that let you live out the life of a criminal, even awarding points for flattening pedestrians or jacking cars. But it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, and deeply provocative; "Once we made it possible to kill policemen, we knew we had something that would turn heads." Sam was infatuated.
And he was right to be: GTA proved to be a huge hit. So, when Take-Two bought out BMG, the brothers followed them to New York, where they founded Rockstar...
