The Houser brothers are usually not ones for demonstrations of grandeur and mostly keep to themselves—which is telling, considering they co-founded Rockstar Games and came up with great IPs like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, to name a few.
This became even more prevalent when, in March 2020, Dan Houser decided to leave the company he created with his older brother Sam, in order to pursue other, more absurd ventures—namely, a new media studio called “Absurd Ventures” (see what I did there?). And you’d be forgiven to think “well, that’s something I didn’t hear much about”. Like I said, them Houser boys keep to themselves.
However, Absurd Ventures has been busy throughout these years, creating new IPs and, in August 2025, in a move that signals an interesting monumental return to the gaming space, Dan Houser’s company has officially partnered with Smilegate (of Lost Ark and Crossfire fame) to publish its upcoming AAA, open-world, sci-fi action-adventure game.
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But far beyond a mere triple-A title, the new game, called “A BETTER PARADISE” might be something you wanna pay attention to for several other reasons, which we’ll tell you about as you read on:
Why You Should Care about A BETTER PARADISE
A New Home for A BETTER PARADISE
First and foremost, let’s get the main news out of the way: Absurd Ventures’ new game, A BETTER PARADISE, is an AAA, open-world sci-fi adventure that includes veterans of some of the most successful open-world and narrative-driven titles in history.
As with any secretive project (and/or Houser’s penchant for keeping things hidden until the last possible minute), there’s not much to go on in terms of game info, but we do know the game’s development is being led by Greg Borrud, a studio head with a resume that includes names such as Niantic, himself being the co-founder of Pandemic Studios (Star Wars: Battlefront) as well . The development team itself is stacked with senior talent from powerhouse studios like Bungie, Treyarch, Insomniac, and Riot.
Now, if you’re into the multiverse media schtick like us, you might already know A BETTER PARADISE: it is a media universe created by Absurd Ventures; a type of overarching, persistent IP that spans across multiple formats—an audio series (premiered in June 2024); a novelization of said audio series (which will come out this October) and the aforementioned video game.
Now, the audio series and the incoming novel are one and the same—just presented in different media formats (the novel intends to be more detailed, origin-wise, though)—but for now, we don’t know if the game will follow the same road or if it will be “based on” and bring another premise and plot. Given the “expanded universe” premise of Absurd Ventures, we’re betting on the latter.
Oh, right, the premise: A BETTER PARADISE is set in the near future, revolving around the development of an ambitious but ultimately failed digital game world led by an inventor and psychologist, Dr. Mark Tyburn. The advanced software, a super-intelligence within the game, began producing unexpected and disturbing results, leading to the project’s abandonment. The game world and its AI were left dormant and undiscovered, until they’re no longer “dormant” nor “undiscovered”.
Unpacking the Absurd Ventures IPs
What makes Absurd Ventures so fascinating is its “media-agnostic” approach. Instead of building a game and then creating a novel or a TV show as marketing tie-ins, the company builds fully-realized universes from the ground up, with stories designed to be told across multiple mediums simultaneously. This approach allows each IP to feel authentic and fully explored, regardless of whether you’re experiencing it as a book, a podcast, or a game.
A BETTER PARADISE is a prime example of this: its audio series was portrayed by notable actors such as Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln, and it topped Apple’s Fiction charts before the novelization and has since been adapted into a novel. But that’s not the only thing Dan Houser’s Absurd Ventures is working on.
Another key IP from the company is “American Caper”, a gritty crime-fiction universe that is currently manifesting as a comic series from Dark Horse Comics. Co-written by Houser with contributions from longtime collaborator Jeffrey Crawford “Lazlow” Jones (yes, “that” Lazlow from GTA: in real life, the man was also part of Rockstar, as a writer, producer and voice actor whose character is a highly exaggerated version of himself—he also left the company in 2020), the story is a dark satire centered on two dysfunctional families caught up in a world of corrupt business, inept politics, and a lot of crime.
Finally, there’s the Absurdaverse, described as a comedy-satire universe that will first appear as animated projects and a separate story-driven action-comedy adventure game. This IP hints at the broad creative range Absurd Ventures aims to cover, from serious sci-fi to dark crime and now, pure comedic absurdity.
It is important to notice, though, even though all three IPs have their own universes, they’re not connected, since Absurd Ventures’ idea is to create several brands on several media formats.
Final Thoughts: Houser’s Media-Agnostic Universe can be a New Take on an Old Idea
The publishing deal with Smilegate is an important step in Absurd Ventures’ history as a solid business brand. Thanks to most super hero movies out there, the notion of an expanded universe is no longer the storytelling innovation it used to be, but Rockstar’s IPs used to play around with the idea through small easter eggs (John Marston’s hat in L.A. Noire comes to mind).
This comes from Dan Houser’s own mind, it’s safe to say: his official titles in Rockstar were “Head Writer” and “Vice President of Creativity”, after all, so it is fairly expected he leads a similar effort on his company. This also shows Smilegate’s commitment to game development as a core component of its own business, and it’s a huge vote of confidence in the project’s potential. The Korean publisher even expressed its excitement over the deal and Houser himself did not mince words celebrating it:
“Absurd Ventures was set up to tell new and different kinds of stories, and to create what I hope are interesting and compelling original experiences. This new game is an opportunity to go somewhere entirely different and to take players on an entirely new adventure,” Houser said in a statement. “I am excited to be going on this journey with the amazing team that we are building here at Absurd Ventures and am grateful that we are partnering with Smilegate who really understand and support our vision.”
Dan Houser
As storytelling goes, this is one worth pouring a great deal of attention to. As the A BETTER PARADISE game is still in its early stages of development, it will probably take some time before we ever hear anything more consistent about it—this is Dan Houser we’re talking about, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all if he pulls a GTA on us and takes a few years before showing the meaty bits of this content.
Still, given the average fan’s patience with GTA 6 and its long ass production time, I think we can all respect that…
