Dan Houser thinks GTA titles aren't "as good as Dickens"

Rockstar Games co-founder, Dan Houser, recently talked about how someone compared stories told in GTA titles to Charles Dickens novels. However, he thinks that the game stories are not as good as Dickens'. Grand Theft Auto is known for having some of the most interesting storylines. Some of them gradually went on to be considered the best in the gaming industry.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Dan Houser told the story of how he met a French journalist in Paris who praised GTA titles and opined that their stories are as good as Charles Dickens' novels. Houser was flattered by the comparison, but feels that Dickens' stories are better than GTA, which he wrote.

Here's what he said:

“I was talking to a journalist from Paris Match, a very cultured French guy – and he said, ‘Well, the Grand Theft Auto games are just like Dickens’. And I was like, God bless you for saying that! But I thought about it afterwards and, well, they’re not as good as Dickens, but they are similar in that he’s world-building."

While Rockstar's co-founder feels GTA is not on the same level as Charles Dickens' work, the world-building aspect of the game series is comparable. He talks about world-building done in Dickens, Emile Zola, and Leo Tolstoy's work, which open-world games like GTA try to depict.

He explained:

"If you look at Dickens, Zola, Tolstoy or any of those authors, there’s that feeling of all the world is here – that’s what you’re trying to get in open world games. It’s a twisted prism, looking at a society that’s interesting in one way or another.”

Former GTA co-writer confident that GTA 6 will be a success

In a previous interview with IGN at LA Comic Con 2025, Dan Houser talked about Rockstar's next massive title, GTA 6. He humorously joked that he has worked on so many GTA titles that the world might not want another title from him. He then confirmed that he did not work on GTA 6, but is confident that the game would be great.

Here's what Houser said:

“In a way. I mean, I think it's a great privilege to have worked on something that big. I wrote the last 10 or 11 of them. I think the world's probably had enough GTA from me. There’s always a new story. It won’t be a story I wrote or a character set I developed, but I think it will be exciting. The game will be great, I’m sure.” [Timestamp - 1:10:30]

GTA 6 will be the first Grand Theft Auto title that will not be co-written by Dan Houser. The title is set to release on November 19, 2026.

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Edited by Akshat Kabra