Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser says game companies should keep making physical releases if players want them, even as the industry races toward an all-digital future.

"I don't know that I care, but if people want that, I think companies should provide it," Houser told IGN in an exclusive interview conducted at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, published 25 July 2026. The comment came as the physical-versus-digital debate — whether games should ship on discs and cartridges or download-only files — heats up across the games business.

Houser, who co-founded Rockstar Games and worked as a writer and creative lead on the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series before leaving the company, has kept a relatively low profile since his departure. He founded a new studio, Absurd Ventures, officially announced in 2023. He was joined at Comic-Con by Lazlow Jones, a former Rockstar colleague also now at Absurd Ventures, who offered his own take on the format question.

"I love physical media," Houser said in the same interview, suggesting his personal affection for boxed games sits alongside a pragmatic streak. He also pointed to a benefit of digital distribution that often goes unmentioned in the debate: "as critical as people are of digital releases, the ability to update and fix problems in games has been really useful for the quality of games." Patches — software fixes issued after a game ships — have become a standard part of modern game development, made possible by internet-connected consoles and PCs.

Jones struck a similar balance. He described the tactile satisfaction of physical games — "that sort of feeling when you get that copy, and you put the disc in the console" — while admitting he enjoys downloading games to his Steam Deck, Valve's handheld PC, for use on flights.

The timing gives Houser's words extra weight. PlayStation has confirmed it will cease production of new physical games starting in January 2028, a decision that signals the end of the disc era for at least one major platform holder. More immediately, Grand Theft Auto 6 — Rockstar's most anticipated release in over a decade, scheduled for November — will not ship on a physical disc at launch. Physical copies will instead be a code in a box, a format that gives buyers a tangible product but still requires a full digital download.

Houser's comments also touch a personal nerve. In earlier remarks reported by IGN in September 2025, he said GTA 6 "will be great" but added that "the world probably had enough GTA from me," his first public comments since leaving Rockstar. A month later, in November 2025, he said Red Dead Redemption 3 will "probably happen" and that he would feel "a bit sad" about not being involved.

For players who have spent decades lining shelves with game cases, Houser's stance offers a simple principle: if the demand is there, the boxes should be too. Whether the industry agrees is a question that the next few years of console cycles will answer.