Rockstar Games’ co-founder sparks new game speculation with trademarks

The co-founder of Rockstar Games has sparked speculation of potentially two upcoming games with trademarks filed at a new studio.

Absurd Ventures was launched by Dan Houser earlier this year after over two decades with Rockstar Games, where his bolstering CV includes the likes of Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and Bully.

Though Absurd Ventures will not solely work on video games, two trademarks have been submitted for “American Caper” and “A Better Paradise,” as spotted by Kurakasis on Twitter—sparking speculation these could be the titles of upcoming releases for the studio.

At this stage, there is little indication of what the trademarks mean, if anything, and what direction the studio is planning to go down. However, given the vast success of the titles that Houser worked on during his time with Rockstar Games, there is certainly no shortage of excitement.

On Reddit, plenty of fans flocked to share their thoughts on the matter with one simply declaring “whatever this dude is making is something I’m really interested in,” while another expressed their wish for the studio to launch a competitor to GTA—though the latter is extremely unlikely.

We could hear more about the two trademarks and the plans of Absurd Ventures in the near future as, in an interview published by Variety on Nov. 10, Houser teased the studio “will have more announcements in the weeks ahead” regarding projects that are in pre-production and production, which will be IP universes.

The same interview highlighted the cross-media plans for Absurd Ventures with the aim to mitigate the risk of introducing a new IP by launching smaller outputs on projects, “whether it’s graphic novels, podcasts, or television.” Outlining the studios’ plans, Houser explained the aim is to “build an audience along the way,” all of which sounds extremely intriguing.