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What Dan Houser thinks about ambition

@dan-houser · 22 positions · 0 changes of mind

Co-founder of Rockstar Games, lead writer of the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, and founder of Absurd Ventures since leaving in 2020.

Dan Houser did not write this page.

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2 dated positions, 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Dan Houser has said — not written or endorsed by them.

2 positions so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

  1. Our readingCommercial pressure and creative ambition point in the same direction, because the way to make an expensive game's money back is to make something great.

    Their wordsSo you have to be, in your mind, you’re spending large amounts of someone else’s money. You have to try and make it back for them. But at the same time, my argument with myself was, well, if we… The way to make it back is try and make something great. So both pressures are pointing in the same direction.

    ↗Dan Houser: GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar, Absurd & Future of Gaming | Lex Fridman Podcast #484youtube.com 9th of 22 in this recording

  3. Our readingThe self-critical voice is both a bug and a feature: it can wreck you, but it is also what supplies drive and a lack of complacency.

    Their wordsThat self-critical brain, I think lots of people suffer from, and I think the internet is designed to induce, if you didn’t have it before, you will have it after being online. It clearly can become a bug, but it also can give you drive and a lack of complacency, so it can also become a feature.

    ↗Dan Houser: GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar, Absurd & Future of Gaming | Lex Fridman Podcast #484youtube.com 16th of 22 in this recording