Dan Houser Says Disc Games Should Still Exist If Players Want Them

A Measured Take From the Man Who Wrote GTA

Dan Houser did not arrive at San Diego Comic Con this week with a fiery manifesto about disc-based gaming. He arrived to talk about Absurd Ventures, his current company. But when IGN asked him about the physical media debate that has been consuming gaming conversations since Sony dropped its disc discontinuation announcement, he gave an answer that was characteristically straightforward.

“I don’t know that I care, but if people want that, I think companies should provide it,” Houser told IGN, as reported by VGC. He was careful to separate his own preferences from what he thinks the industry owes its audience. His argument is not that discs are essential. It is that consumer desire alone is a sufficient reason for the option to exist.

Houser co-founded Rockstar Games and served as lead writer on nearly every major Grand Theft Auto title through GTA 5, plus Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, Bully, and Max Payne 3. He left Rockstar in early 2020. His opinion on how games are distributed carries some weight, even if he no longer sits inside one of the biggest publishers in the business.

He also pushed back gently on the most heated digital criticism. “The ability to update and fix problems in games has been really useful for the quality of games,” he said, acknowledging that the all-digital era has not been without real benefits.

Lazlow Jones Brings the Airport Analogy

Joining Houser at the panel was Lazlow Jones, the longtime GTA radio personality and writer who also departed Rockstar in 2020 and has since joined Absurd Ventures. Jones offered a more openly nostalgic perspective on physical media, while still landing in a complicated place.

“We all have that sort of feeling when you get that copy and you put the disc in the console,” Jones said. But he was quick to balance that sentiment. “I also have to say I really like being at the airport and going ‘oh cool, I can download some quick games to my Steam Deck for this 12-hour flight.’” It is hard to argue with that particular calculus.

The conversation took an interesting turn when Jones connected their current work to the physical versus digital question from a different angle. Absurd Ventures produces the American Caper comic series, and Jones described working on a physical comic book as genuinely different after spending years in the video game industry.

“We’ve worked in digital together for a lot of years and then making a physical product of a comic book is a different creative process, but it’s also just really fulfilling to have a physical thing so you can say ‘look, we made a thing,’” Jones said.

Houser followed that up by pointing to the latest American Caper issue and saying, “I love physical media. I think everyone does.” The implication being that his affection for physical objects lives more comfortably in books and comics than in game cartridges.

The Sony Backdrop

None of this is happening in a vacuum. As reported by VGC, Sony announced roughly three and a half weeks ago that physical disc games would be discontinued for PlayStation consoles beginning January 2028. The decision has generated sustained criticism across Sony’s social media channels and reignited a debate that the industry has been having in various forms for over a decade.

Houser’s comments do not take a dramatic stance against Sony’s direction, but they do offer something worth sitting with: the idea that a company should not need to be personally invested in a format to recognize that serving the people who are invested in it is simply good practice.

On the topic of Absurd Ventures itself, Houser confirmed the studio is working on two open-world games. One is a comedy action adventure. The other, in his words, is “definitely less of a comedy.” Both details are thin, but coming from the writer behind some of the most richly constructed open worlds in gaming history, they are enough to keep people watching.