Recently Rockstar was in the news for some dodgy but fully legal tax work, something they were responding to along with UKIE. Now, the first article back in July implicated Dan and Sam Houser in an agreement that set things up for Rockstar to allegedly pay zero pounds in tax. The second is fairly scarce of mention to Dan and Sam’s names, rather mentioning the publisher and developer by name than the people behind it. If you were to ask most people about Rockstar, they would reply with Grand Theft Auto, which wasn’t a Rockstar original. That was DMA Design and BMG Interactive, which are now both defunct names.

It was the May following the release of Grand Theft Auto in August of 1997 that BMG Interactive was acquired by Take-Two Interactive. With this acquisition, the company would then own the rights to games published by BMG, one of which was the fabled sandbox series by DMA Design. With Take-Two, the Housers, along with Terry Donovan and Jamie King launched Rockstar Games as the subsidiary publisher specializing in open-world sandbox games from December of 1998. From then on Sam has been the company’s president with Dan as VP for creative.

In 2006 King would leave his role as VP of development to join as the chief creative officer of 4MM Games, the co-developer behind Def Jam Rapstar. Donovan would leave Rockstar in January of 2007 after four months leave to be replaced with former BMG co-worker of the Housers, Gary Dale. In a shocking announcement listed as “other events,” it was revealed that Dan Houser will be leaving his position as Vice President for Creative at Rockstar Games.

“After an extended break beginning in the spring of 2019, Dan Houser, Vice President, Creative at Rockstar Games, will be leaving the company,” states the filing on Take-Two’s investor relations website. It continues with, “Dan Houser’s last day will be March 11, 2020. We are extremely grateful for his contributions. Rockstar Games has built some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful game worlds, a global community of passionate fans and an incredibly talented team, which remains focused on current and future projects.” When gamesindustry.biz contacted Rockstar for a comment they declined to say more.

Rockstar did, however, go on to say that Sam Houser will stay in his position. With this news coming as a shock to many, some have suggested that there was trouble at the publisher or bad blood between the two brothers. As there’s nothing public, and no sign that there was a noticeable change, this is only speculation and innuendo.

This news comes only two days before Rockstar is set to release their Q3 reports on Thursday. Given Grand Theft Auto V is the most profitable piece of entertainment in history, one would be hard pressed to say that Dan Houser would leave the company for a downturn in profits. We may find out someday, but at present Rockstar doesn’t want to comment on such news.

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