Sam Houser, Rockstar Games' co-founder and president, has pulled out of a planned GQ interview about GTA 6, reportedly "mostly for personal reasons". Preview report RockstarINTEL reported the news on October 3, citing GQ writer Sam White, who had been arranging the piece.
What happened
- White had reportedly been in talks with Rockstar for about four years. Preview report
- Rockstar confirmed in April that Houser would take part. Preview report
- Plans changed in the last few weeks. White said he had his questions ready, and that Houser's answer was, in effect, that he was good and didn't want to do it. Preview report
Rockstar hasn't commented, and nobody has said what the personal reasons are. We won't speculate.
Why it matters
Sam Houser has led Rockstar since co-founding it in 1998 and is one of the most private executives in games. A long GTA 6 interview just before launch would have been the first real look in years at how the company's boss thinks about the game. GQ has run in-depth Rockstar features before, which made it a natural home for one.
His brother Dan Houser, GTA's long-time lead writer, left Rockstar in 2020. He's been more talkative, and recently said he still hasn't watched any GTA 6 gameplay.
Who's speaking for Rockstar instead
Rob Nelson, Rockstar North's co-studio head, has become the face of GTA 6. He has done the Game Informer cover story, the August previews and a long IGN interview released this week. Rockstar only started giving GTA 6 interviews in the past few months.
Our read
It changes nothing about the game or the November 19 launch. It's a loss for anyone interested in the story behind Rockstar, and a reminder that the studio prefers to let the game do the talking. If the interview is rescheduled after launch, we'll cover it.