In the midst of Rockstar Games facing quite a bit of criticism for its firing of 34 employees earlier this month in what has been referred to as union busting efforts, some are now also speculating on the reason for Dan Houser’s departure from the studio in 2020. In a discussion taking place over at the GTA Forums, users have speculated that the studio co-founder may have left due to the direction it was taking.
While far from confirmation on the matter, known Grand Theft Auto leaker and insider Tez2 has shared their own thoughts on the matter. In a post, Tez2 said that Houser’s departure from Rockstar Games came about due to disagreements he had with his brother over the company’s direction. The leaker also went on to note that Houser’s departure likely had nothing to do with the company’s union busting efforts, stating that if this were the case, he would have left way back in 2018 instead.
“He left over a disagreement with his brother about the company’s direction, as per two former devs,” wrote Tez2. “If it was due to union busting or working conditions, he would have left in 2018 as a way of apologizing for his comment quoted in Schreier’s article.”
The post came about as a response to another user speculating about the state of things at Rockstar Games, especially when comparing current events to the circumstances of Houser’s departure.
“We will probably never know exactly the reasons why [Dan Houser left], but I’m not the only one with this opinion, and pretending everything is hunky dory at Rockstar is baffling, especially when we keep hearing bad things coming from people working at a company that is in the middle of a union busting scandal,” wrote a user.
Houser’s departure was announced back in February 2020, just a couple of years after the release of the immensely successful Red Dead Redemption 2. He had worked on quite a few of the biggest games that Rockstar Games had made, including iconic titles like Grand Theft Auto 3. Interestingly, while he has recently said that he doesn’t have much to do with the writing in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, this is likely due to rumours from 2021 that indicated that the title’s development was rebooted in 2020. This would put it in line with Houser’s departure.
As for Rockstar Games, a recent report has indicated that the studio had fired the 34 employees shortly after changes were made to its internal policies surrounding the use of Slack. These changes resulted in a number of channels being removed from the studio’s Slack, leaving employees with no real way to communicate with each other for non-work subjects.
The firings have resulted in the company facing quite a bit of backlash from employees as well as the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), which has been organising protests outside the studio’s various offices. In its protests, the IWGB has been asking for more accountability from the management and leadership at Rockstar Games.
