Rockstar's Dan Houser has set up his new studio

(Image credit: Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences)

Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser has registered what appears to be a new game development studio, posters on GTA Forums discovered earlier this week (via VGC).

Co-founding Rockstar back in 1998 with his brother Sam, Terry Donovan and Jamie King, Dan Houser departed the GTA house last March. But on June 23rd, Houser registered a new company in the UK named Absurd Ventures in Games, listed under the category of "ready-made interactive leisure and entertainment software development"—or as we call them, games.

This follows two separate registrations in the US back in February for an Absurd Ventures in Games LLC, but also a broader-sounding Absurd Ventures LLC. Some users on the aforementioned forum speculate that this may suggest Houser is instead planning to move into investment, or at least a broader push beyond game development.

Whatever it is, it may be some time before we find out exactly what Absurd Ventures is up to. Four years on, we're still to hear concrete details on fellow Rockstar alum Leslie Benzies' ambitious new project Everywhere—though the former studio president departed Rockstar on much less amicable terms.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.