Dan Houser: companies should sell game discs if players want them

If you are watching the industry shove discs toward the exit while GTA VI leans digital, Dan Houser's Comic-Con answer is less manifesto than market rule. The Rockstar co-founder, now building Absurd Ventures with longtime collaborator Lazlow Jones, says he does not personally obsess over disc vs download. He still thinks demand should get a product.

What Houser actually said

Speaking during San Diego Comic-Con 2026 press rounds, Houser was asked about physical game releases in a moment when PlayStation's planned end of new disc production and Rockstar's digital-first GTA VI plans are dominating the argument.

I don't know that I care, but if people want that, I think companies should provide it.

He immediately paired that consumer-demand line with a developer's defense of live updates:

And I also think that, 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.

That is the whole policy in two beats: keep discs if buyers still show up, and stop pretending patches are a moral failure. Houser is not currently at Rockstar, so treat this as industry commentary from the person who helped define GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2, not as a new Rockstar store SKU promise.

Physical nostalgia, digital convenience

Jones, sitting in the same conversation, split the difference out loud. He described the familiar feeling of putting a disc in a console, then admitted he also likes grabbing downloads onto a Steam Deck for a long flight. Houser, talking about Absurd Ventures' printed comic work, including American Caper with Dark Horse, went further on objects you can hold:

I love physical media.

That love is currently showing up in comics and other physical Absurd Ventures products more clearly than in a Houser-led console box run. The useful takeaway for players is still the demand clause, not a promise that every future blockbuster will ship a pressed disc forever.

Watch on YouTube

American Caper: Houser and Jones' physical comic from Absurd Ventures

Red Dead Redemption 2: Houser-era Rockstar open-world landmark

What this does not settle

Whether Rockstar changes GTA VI's physical strategy because Houser said companies should serve demand

Whether PlayStation revisits its 2028 disc-production wind-down on the strength of one interview

Exact regional definitions of "physical" when some big releases ship as code-in-a-box plastic with a download inside

If your local shelf still matters, vote with pre-orders and used-market prices. If you only care about day-one patches and travel installs, Houser already conceded the quality case for digital.

Where to go next

Watch Rockstar and PlayStation store pages for the actual GTA VI purchase options as launch approaches, and follow Absurd Ventures for Houser's current slate. More industry hardware and storefront coverage lives on our gaming feed and the tech section.