Rockstar's notoriously private co-founder and president, Sam Houser, hasn't said a whole lot in public about his involvement in the studio's forthcoming behemoth, GTA 6, leading to a fair degree of rumor and speculation that he's taken a backseat in the actual day-to-day creative decision-making. That is not true in the slightest, according to Rockstar North co-studio head and head of development, Rob Nelson.
Talking to Edge for its big GTA 6 cover story, Nelson put the idea of Houser being little more than a "taste director" ala record producer Rick Rubin to bed. Nelson's exact words are paraphrased by Edge's editors, but Nelson insists that Houser was involved with the initial conception and general direction of GTA 6 and that he's integrally linked to every aspect of the game's creative direction, dispelling any suggestion that he's simply overseeing the company and general vibe of the project without as much direct creative input as earlier GTA games.
"Sam and I will identify problems or issues that we then solve with and across the teams," says Nelson of Houser's involvement. Nelson also says he spends a couple of weeks with Houser every time there's a new milestone in GTA 6's development, and together they come up with feedback addressing nitty gritty stuff like lighting and audio to more fundamental issues involving game mechanics, tone, and narrative. The feedback is then sent to the relevant teams, who work through Nelson and Houser's list of issues before the process picks back up again.
Of course, with a map size rivaling GTA 4, GTA 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2 combined, and a world where "you can go anywhere, any random location, and so many people have thought about that location," there's no way any one person can have eyes on every single tiny little detail in the game, but it's clear that Houser remains a foundational creative influence in the GTA canon even more than 30 years later.
