“Red Dead 2 was the best thing I worked on,” says Rockstar’s Dan Houser

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Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game with a very clear and unwavering artistic direction. It’s deliberately slow-paced and doesn’t shy away from making you simply exist within its world, encouraging you to spend time on everyday activities and truly absorb the atmosphere. It’s a game you’ll either connect with or not, and it always felt like Rockstar Games was focused on creating the experience they wanted, confident that it would find its players.

Dan Houser, a co-founder of Rockstar, believes Red Dead Redemption 2 is his most significant achievement at the company. Speaking at LA Comic Con, he stated, “Red Dead 2, I think, was the best thing that I worked on, the best single realization of open-world storytelling, thematic consistency, and understanding how the games are assembled to take you on an emotional journey.”

By August of this year, Red Dead Redemption 2 had sold more than 77 million copies, establishing it as one of the highest-selling video games ever. However, it still hasn’t reached the sales numbers of GTA 5, which has sold over 215 million copies. Even so, that’s quite an achievement for a historical drama focusing on cowboys facing the end of their era and a changing world.

Dan Houser was the driving creative mind behind Red Dead Redemption 2, crafting the story and characters before leaving Rockstar in 2020. Since then, he’s established his own company, Absurd Ventures, and is collaborating with Lazlow and other former Rockstar team members on a range of projects – including books, audio dramas, and video games.

I was really impressed earlier this year when I checked out the company’s first audio drama, A Better Paradise. I actually called it “a fascinating look inside the twisted mind of Dan Houser” in my review. And I even got to chat with Lazlow about his time at Rockstar and what he’s hoping to achieve with this new venture. It was a great experience!

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2025-09-29 14:47