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Dan Houser revealed that Rockstar was thinking about taking a wild swing in a new game genre that could have put them in competition with Ubisoft.
Houser talked about this game with Lex Fridman in his recent interview. To preserve the meaning of this conversation, we’ll share a transcript below.
Dan Houser: And then we played around with the knights concept that was…
Lex Fridman: Nice
Dan Houser: …you know, knights and trying to do a version of a mythological game that could have been fun. And, you know, still love that idea, but never went very far with it.
Lex Fridman: Knights would be going really far back in history.
Dan Houser: Yeah, it would have to go. It never got to writing any of it. Just did some backstory and played around with a few ideas. But it’s always something I thought I would never do and then kind of fell in love with it a little bit.
Why Would Rockstar Make A Knight-Themed Video Game?
It certainly seems unlikely that the company that made a fortune on Grand Theft Auto Online would make some wild experiments like that now. But Rockstar did go through an experimental period that gave us some great games.
Of course, Rockstar’s second biggest IP is Red Dead Redemption. Some fans do believe Red Dead Redemption 2 went on top as the best game the studio ever made.
Outside of those two, Rockstar made some successful one-offs. Depending on who you talk to, number three would be either Bully, which they made on their own, or L.A. Noire, which was a co-production with Team Bondi.
Their other games include the controversial Manhunt, the stellar film adaptation The Warriors, and underground racing title Midnight Club.
What Would A Mythological Knights Rockstar Game Be Like?
Houser did not elaborate but medieval knights are fertile material for video games to this day. The most obvious inspirations here would be Arthurian legend and Robin Hood.
There’s also a lot of other myths Rockstar could also make semi-historical games based on real life people. That could include El Cid, William Marshall, or Joan of Arc.
It’s less likely but Rockstar could work with some other licensee for some famous fantasy knights such as D&D or Warhammer. But of course, Rockstar could just make their own thing.
Knowing Rockstar’s open world game design, it sounds like they would have made a more ambitious version of Cinemaware’s Defender of the Crown. You could be building a kingdom in the same way that you could build your own crime syndicate in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Maybe Dan doesn’t think he would have been able to write that game. But we would love to see if Rockstar tried this idea in earnest, the same way they did with Red Dead Redemption. And there’s nothing materially stopping them from trying something like this.
