I honestly had something all lined up to write about today. It would have been something simple and laid back with no unnecessary stress, but then something profound happened. Something that will undoubtedly have wide sweeping consequences across one of, if not the, most influential game companies in the world thus could potentially shifting the landscape of game development. And yet, I'll bet that it's a topic that will get looked over by a lot of folk just because of who it is involved. I am of course talking about Dan Houser's departure from Rockstar.
Now, this news is so fresh that I only just finished reading the article 20 minutes before starting to write this, (Which, contrary to all the evidence you may find in this blog, is not the time that I usually like to let stories marinate) but this was far to juicy for me to pass up. One one hand, Dan is a writer who's work I respect a great deal; he's capable of penning cutting insights and crafting engrossing characters to a standard that I just plain never will be able to, and I see his style reflected in a lot of games I play everyday. On the otherhand, Rockstar is perhaps the most well known game company around the world and a literal rockstar of the industry; any news that has the potential to shake up their very foundation is something worth paying attention to. So my fluff blog will have to be postponed... again... >sigh<...
Now, you might meet this news with the immediate reaction of "So? I don't even know who this guy is." and that is one of the reasons why I'm so fascinated by this story. You see, Sam and his brother Dan are almost notoriously private considering their incredible eminence in the gaming market and that is reflected perfectly in their Wiki pages which are almost bare. Rockstar themselves are some of the most secretive developers in the world, (Although I get the sense that's more a product of their specific creative process rather than a conscious effort) and I'm 70-80% sure that they spend their years between releases securing sacrifices for their demonic rituals. (How else can you explain the amount of success they've had so many years straight without a single serious flop?) Digging around the Internet there is only so much you can find about these two, but there's enough to get a decent idea of who they are and what makes them so important.
Dan and Sam are often hailed as 'the founders of Rockstar' which is absolutely true, however that doesn't mean they founded it's predecessor DMA Design too. As much as it's fun to speculate how it was that they developers of 'Lemmings' turned to games about hard crime and redeeming the irredeemable, the truth is that Sam and Dan joined DMA, learned a lot and used that as a launching off point for Rockstar. (Or at least that's how things turned out as far as I can tell, information is sparse.) The tone of Rockstar games apparently comes from the siblings' love for gangster movies and their morose Tarantino-brand pessimism comes from years of living under a direct flight path. (I can only assume.)For years the pair ran the show at Rockstar with Sam credited as 'CEO' most often and Dan getting the 'Producer' credit and/or 'lead writer'. (But I'd imagine they both had their hand in shaping the company over the years.) Although given his specific credit, I'd have to imagine that Dan is the specific fellow to thank for the distinct tone of Rockstar games that has been both lauded and criticized throughout the years. At times Rockstar's stories have been labelled bigoted or mean spirited (I'd argue that the latter is usually more true then the former) and othertimes critics have found themselves a tad grated by the onslaught of pessimism. (Which is something that I definitely noticed in Max Payne 3.) But for the most part Dan's talents are wildly recognized and praised for their ability to cut through the barrier between human and game to touch the player every now and then. (Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 were especially strong in that department.)
Although we have very little in the way of 'first hand accounts', obviously, we do know that Dan Houser took his job seriously and I can only imagine that he sought to strive the team to top themselves with every release. Personally I heard a glimmer of that in a throw away anecdote by Benjamin Byron Davis in one Q&A where he hinted at how serious the boss was that the scene he wrote be performed exactly as he envisioned it. Does that mean the man is the kind of Kubrik-like perfectionist who'll retake a scene over and over until everything is just right? Judging from the cutscenes in 'Grand Theft Auto: London' I can assume not, but you never know; maybe Dan wanted all the dialogue to sound like it was being spoken by a kidnapped Canadian held at gunpoint and taught the dual talents of acting and accent-mimicry by a 2 page-long instructional leaflet.
But all that talent is no longer at the disposal of Rockstar anymore for Dan has departed the company and, in typical Rockstar fashion, hasn't offered a reason why to anyone. In recent years when we see a significant departure like this it comes in the wake of turbulent times thus sparking rumors of a struggling company. (The customary canned 'PR speak' that basically translates to: "Everything is fine, fellow human." doesn't tend to help matters much either.) It's just like when Casey Hudson left Bioware after the lukewarm reception to Mass Effect 3 (Still sold well, though) and the studio went to the toilet almost immediately afterwards. (With emphasis on 'Almost'. People tend to forget that 'Dragon Age: Inquisiton' came out after that.) But Rockstar are just settling down from one huge hit, still raking in the dough from their hit before that, and reportedly are starting production on what is sure to be their next big hit; so Dan's departure is probably just a holiday for several consecutive jobs well done. (Can't say the guy doesn't deserve it.)
The important question here, at the end of the day, is whether or not this will change the dynamic over at Rockstar. Sam Houser still runs as CEO (at least for today. Who knows, he could be planning on following his brother out of the door next week) but will his provedly strong direction be enough to keep things 'buisness-as-usual' when such an important part of the studios' soul has up and vanished. Of course, there are the still the entire rest of the writing staff who I'm sure are talented enough to ensure the entire narrative reputation of Rockstar doesn't completely fall to crap in the next few years, (And hopefully none of them are responsible for writing the 'Online' story sections for GTA and Red Dead) but without Dan there's a very real possibility that we could be seeing real change heading for Rockstar, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Until we have a game on our laps to see for ourselves, I'll stay hopeful and patiently wait to see what everyone's favourite wonder-kids conjure up next. (Maybe they'll need two goat sacrifices in order to make extra sure that their next game is up to snuff.)
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