Rockstar Founder Relishes Freedom of New Art Form

While noting that the gaming industry is still in its infantile stage, Rockstar founder Dan Houser says he'll gladly deal with the growing pains in order to explore a new art form.

"I think the medium is still very young," said Houser to Telegraph. "It's not a baby, but it's still probably an infant. So everything is growing and evolving as we go along and we're still figuring out how to do stuff.

"Movies and TV and books have become so structured in the way they have to approach things. Not working in that environment gives us enormous freedom. I'd rather keep the freedom and not have the respect."

Houser co-founded Rockstar in 1998, going on to fame and fortune by way of the lucrative Grand Theft Auto series. The two recently signed a deal to remain with Rockstar through January 2012.

"There was a sense that in some way movies were a higher art form and video games could aspire to be like them," said Houser of the early days of gaming. "I think now, because we and a few other companies are making products, that this isn't the case. They're just different, and video games are capable of things that movies aren't.

"I used to think it was radically different and had enormous constraints to any other medium, but I think I was just being naive about the limitations all mediums have."

Added Houser on the present: "It's really fun at the moment because we're not in any Academy and the medium's not codified. There's no accepted way of doing anything so that give us enormous pleasure because we can make it up as we go along."