Sam Houser

Sam Houser (1971)^[5] is a British video game producer and developer.^[3][6] He is the co-founder and president of Rockstar Games and one of the creative driving forces behind the games in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, being director and producer since the third game. He is responsible for taking GTA into the 3D-environment era, creating realistic cities under fully 3D-engines and turning the series into huge profits during video gaming's sixth-generation era.

Early life

Houser and his brother Dan were born in London^[5] and are the sons of divorce lawyer Walter Houser and actress Geraldine Moffat.^[7][8] They both attended St Paul's School, London, before going to London and Cambridge universities.^[9] He became an American citizen in 2007.^[10]

Career

Credited as executive producer and co-writer, Houser is also the creator of the Grand Theft Auto series with his brother Dan. On Grand Theft Auto III his responsibilities were, in his words, to be "militant on ensuring the game had a look, a sound, a story and a feel that worked."^[11] His description of the series as a whole is that the three sixth-generation Grand Theft Auto games form a "trilogy, [featuring] our distorted look at the East Coast around the time of the millennium (Grand Theft Auto III), followed by our reinterpretation of '80s Miami (Vice City), and lastly, our look at early-'90s California [(San Andreas)]."^[12]

Despite their status as creators of Grand Theft Auto and one of the most successful video game franchises of all-time, Houser and his brother Dan have shied away from the spotlight. They have focused on the Rockstar Games brand, rather than any one person getting the credit for the games' success.^[13] In 2009, both Sam and Dan Houser appeared in Time Magazine's most 100 influential people of 2009 list.^[14] Houser has most recently produced Grand Theft Auto V and Max Payne 3.

Writer

• Body Harvest (1998) (uncredited)
• Space Station Silicon Valley (1998) (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto: London, 1969 (1999) (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999) (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto III (2001) (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005) (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006) (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned (2009) (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony (2009) (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto V (2013)

Voice actor

• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) - Gangster (uncredited)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) - Pedestrian (uncredited)

References