Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser, now at Absurd Ventures, offered a measured take on physical media during an IGN conversation at San Diego Comic-Con 2026: he doesn’t personally care about discs, but companies should keep supplying them if players demand it. The comment lands weeks after Sony’s July 1 announcement that new PlayStation games will ship digital-only starting January 2028, a move already drawing backlash for killing choice in a market that still values ownership and resale.

Houser paired his stance with a nod to digital’s practical upside—the ability to patch broken launches quickly—while Lazlow Jones, his longtime collaborator, admitted the tactile satisfaction of a physical copy before pivoting to Steam Deck convenience on flights. The exchange came during a panel promoting Absurd Ventures’ comic and game projects, not a direct swipe at Sony, yet it underscores the disconnect between execs who see digital as inevitable and the collectors still buying steelbooks.

Houser left Rockstar in early 2020 and has no say in Take-Two’s release strategy, but his pedigree as the writer behind GTA III through V and both Red Dead Redemption titles gives the remark extra weight in the ongoing physical-versus-digital debate. Receipts show the comments are direct quotes from the IGN sit-down, not cherry-picked outrage bait.