Daniel Houser (born November 1973) is an English video game producer, writer, and voice actor, as well as the co-founder (along with his brother
Sam) and former vice president of creativity for
Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...
. As well as producing video games, Houser was the head writer for Rockstar Games,
being the lead for ''
Bully
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by ot ...
'' (2006), ''
Red Dead Redemption
''Red Dead Redemption'' is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. A spiritual successor to 2004's ''Red Dead Revolver'', it is the second game in the ''Red Dead'' series. ''Red Dead Redempt ...
'' (2010) and ''
Max Payne 3
''Max Payne 3'' is a 2012 third-person shooter video game developed and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on May 15, 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360; a Microsoft Windows port was released on May 29, 2012, followed by an OS X p ...
'' (2012). He has also written, or co-written, almost all of the titles in the ''
Grand Theft Auto
''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones (video game developer), David Jones and Mike Dailly (game designer), Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan Hous ...
'' series.
Biography
Daniel Houser was born in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in November 1973,
the son of British lawyer Walter Houser and actress
Geraldine Moffat
Geraldine Houser ( Moffat; born 5 September 1939) is a British former film and television actress and the mother of video game producers Sam and Dan Houser.
Selected filmography
* ''The Man Who Had Power Over Women'' (1970) – Lydia Blake ...
.
Houser studied geography.
Despite wanting to be musicians, both Houser and his brother
Sam had a fascination with storytelling from a young age. Growing up near a video library in London, they watched many American crime and cult films and
Spaghetti Western
The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...
s. Houser has stated he is a fan of
Walter Hill
Walter may refer to:
People
* Walter (name), both a surname and a given name
* Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968)
* Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...
's film ''
The Warriors'',
and
Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...
went on to release
a video game version of ''The Warriors'' in 2005.
In 1995, Houser got a part-time job at BMG Interactive testing CD-ROMs; he became a full-time employee until 1996.
Dan and Sam later became interested in a video game called ''Race'n'Chase'' which was being developed by
DMA Design
Rockstar North Limited (formerly DMA Design Limited) is a British video game development company and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Edinburgh. The company was founded as DMA Design in Dundee in 1987 by David Jones (video game developer), D ...
after getting a preview of the game. The Housers signed ''Race'n'Chase'' to BMG Interactive as the publisher and changed the name of the game to ''
Grand Theft Auto
''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones (video game developer), David Jones and Mike Dailly (game designer), Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan Hous ...
''. Following the sale of BMG Interactive to Take-Two in 1998, Houser and his brother moved with the company to New York, where they founded Rockstar Games.
He has cited the 3D ''
Mario
is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...
'' and ''
Zelda'' games on the
Nintendo 64
The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...
as influences on his work.
Houser has been credited as a producer for five ''Grand Theft Auto'' games, and also worked as a writer and voice artist for the series. Despite the high profile of the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, Houser and his brother have shied away from the celebrity spotlight, preferring to focus on the Rockstar Games brand rather than giving any one person the credit for the games' success. In 2009, both Dan and Sam Houser appeared in
''Time'' magazine's 100 most influential people of 2009 list. In 2012, he bought a house in Brooklyn that once belonged to author
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
.
In February 2020, Rockstar Games's parent company, Take-Two Interactive, announced Houser's resignation from Rockstar Games. He left Rockstar on 11 March 2020, following an extended break in 2019.
In August 2020, he bought a estate in the
Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.
In February 2021, Houser registered two companies in
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
: Absurd Ventures LLC and Absurd Ventures in Games LLC, the latter with a
subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...
based in
Altrincham
Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...
. Houser is listed as the company's producer and creative director.
By September 2022, Houser joined the advisory board of Revolving Games, a
blockchain game
Video games that include elements that use blockchain technologies, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), allow players to buy, sell, or trade in-game items with other players. The game publisher takes a fee from each trans ...
studio, after investing in a funding round for the company;
Houser met co-founder Saad Zaeem some years earlier to explore ideas, but they ultimately chose different projects, leading Houser to become an adviser and investor instead.
Works
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houser, Dan
1973 births
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductees
English expatriates in the United States
English male voice actors
Living people
People educated at St Paul's School, London
Rockstar Games
Video game producers
Video game writers