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After 22 years at Rockstar, former Red Dead Redemption and GTA lead seemingly turns to near-future sci-fi in his new open-world action game

Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar and lead writer on Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto, is working on a new sci-fi open-world action game at his new studio, Absurd Ventures.

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Rockstar co-founder and veteran Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto lead Dan Houser seems to be working on a lot of things at his new studio, Absurd Ventures, and one of them is a new sci-fi IP that might just be the setting of the big open-world action game that just got outed in a job listing.

In 2023, Absurd Ventures made its formal debut as a studio dedicated to building new IP focused on strong narratives - and while video games were mentioned as a possibility for the studio, it wasn't clear how thoroughly gaming would tie into the whole endeavor. In fact, the studio's first announced projects were a graphic novel and a podcast series. But earlier this week, a job listing confirmed that an "open-world action-adventure game" is in the works at the studio.

Now, it seems likely that the podcast series is a lead-in to the video game. The 12-episode audio drama, titled A Better Paradise Volume One: An Aftermath, is set to launch on June 10, and is described in a press release as "the first story in an expansive new universe created and written by Houser." Another veteran GTA writer, Lazlow Jones, is also on the project.

"Houser, Lazlow, and the Absurd Ventures team are in various stages of development on multiple projects set in the A BETTER PARADISE universe," the press release continues, "including additional audio fiction seasons, as well as television and video game titles." There's no proper confirmation that the open-world game outed in the job listing is the video game title alluded to here, but it sure seems likely.

"Set in the near future," the official plot description explains, "'A BETTER PARADISE Volume One: An Aftermath' tells the story of the ill-fated development of an ambitious but addictive digital game-world project led by inventor and psychologist Dr. Mark Tyburn. As the advanced software they developed began delivering unexpected and disturbing results, the team fell apart under strange circumstances and the project was abandoned. The game world and super-intelligence within were discarded, left dormant and undiscovered. Until now."

Near-future sci-fi feels like it would be a perfect next step for a new game from a dev with Houser's pedigree, and the notion of a mysterious, forgotten game world at the heart of it could be an intriguing and extremely meta premise. Personally, I'm hoping it turns out to be something like Sword Art Online without all the anime hangups.

Houser has a heck of a pedigree with the best open-world games.