Rockstar Games Co-Founder’s New Company Opens Second Studio With Ex-Ascendant Studios Staff

It was recently announced that Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser’s new company has opened a second studio. Absurd Ventures is currently working on an open world action-adventure game and they recently brought on several game developers in a new office based in Marin County, California.

Named after where it is based, Absurd Marin is made up of developers from Ascendant Studios. They were founded by Bret Robbins. Best known for being Creative Director of Sledgehammer Games in this illustrious career, he worked on Call of Duty titles such as Advanced Warfare. Robbins left to start up and run Ascendant Studios and served as Game Director on the studio’s first title.

Their first and last game was Immortals of Aveum which launched last year. Despite its impressive graphics and technical achievements, it did not sell many copies. Huge layoffs hit the company and was seen as a business failure.

Following these layoffs, Bret left his own company to join forces with Dan Houser and company. Robbins heads the new subsidiary Absurd Marin. According to gamesindustry.bizAbsurd Ventures told them “about 20 developers from the core team behind Immortals of Aveum”. Also, Absurd’s second office “will continue to be staffed further as development progresses on the project.”

Second Project In The Works

That project in question is apparently separate from the open world action-adventure game based on their A Better Paradise franchise. This is said to be a “story-driven adventure title based on an unannounced new IP”. Absurdo’s first media project, A BETTER PARADISE the audio drama, released in June.

Earlier we reported on a job listing posted by Absurd Ventures. For a Lead Game Designer role it stated “Become the primary visionary and hands-on contributor for character, controls and camera design in an open world action-adventure game.”

Along with Dan Houser, several former Rockstar veterans are part of Absurd Ventures. These include Lazlow Jones (former writer, producer, actor), Michael Unsworth (former Vice President of Writing), and Adam Tedman (former VP of New Media).

“Absurda builds narrative worlds, creates characters and writes stories for various genres, regardless of medium, to be produced for live action and animation; video games and other interactive content; books, graphic novels, and written podcasts.”

Interested in Dan Houser’s new company? Let us know in the comments. Stay tuned to RockstarINTEL for news updates on Absurd Ventures and all things Rockstar Games.