Smilegate makes strategic investment in Absurd Ventures

South Korean publisher and developer Smilegate has made a strategic investment in Absurd Ventures, the United States-based media and entertainment company founded by Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser, the company announced. Through this agreement, Smilegate will have the opportunity to partner with Absurd Ventures on its new intellectual property.

Both companies will leverage each other’s strengths into new business opportunities. Smilegate will benefit from Houser and his team’s narrative, AAA game, and business expertise in the western market, while Absurd Ventures will benefit from Smilegate’s expertise in the Asian market. Both companies will also benefit from each other’s strengths in areas such as online and live service, considering Smilegate’s success with CROSSFIRE and Houser and his team’s experience overseeing Grand Theft Auto Online.

“This collaboration with Smilegate was borne from a mutual respect and a philosophical alignment with founder Kwon, and the great passion he and his team bring to making AAA games,” Absurd Ventures founder Dan Houser said in a press release. “We both want to build interesting worlds and new player experiences.”

Smilegate CEO Joonhoo Sung added, “We are thrilled to collaborate with the developers behind globally renowned series that have millions of fans worldwide. Together with Absurd Ventures, Smilegate aims to deliver games that players across the globe will love. This partnership marks a critical milestone in Smilegate’s journey toward becoming a global IP powerhouse.”

Here is an overview of each company, via Smilegate:

Absurd Ventures

Absurd Ventures was launched by Dan Houser, whose creative direction during his over twenty years at Rockstar Games drove the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption franchises, among others, to collectively sell more than 550 million units worldwide.

Houser creatively oversaw globally successful intellectual properties that are cultural cornerstones and rooted in immersive storytelling. As the creative director and lead writer of Rockstar’s biggest games, Houser conceived indelibly rich worldbuilding, captivating and sometimes heart-breaking stories, and created iconic characters like Tommy Vercetti, Arthur Morgan, Trevor Phillips, and John Marston to name just a few.

Houser’s team at Absurd Ventures includes key leaders and talent from his time at Rockstar Games as well as executive game development veterans who worked on Call of Duty, Pokemon Go!, and many other AAA franchises. Absurd Ventures is currently at work building a bold new vision with diverse new intellectual property universes across a wide array of mediums, including video games as well as live-action and animated TV and film, audio fiction podcasts, books, comic books, and more.

While Absurd Ventures’ video game projects are in early stages of development, they have in 2024 released a hit audio fiction series set in their science-fiction universe, A Better Paradise, which debuted at #1 on Apple’s Fiction charts, and will be introducing their American Caper crime-fiction universe as an original comic book series in 2025. A third intellectual property universe from Absurd Ventures will also be revealed soon.

Smilegate

Smilegate is the creator of the blockbuster franchises CROSSFIRE, Lost Ark, and Epic Seven, that are hugely beloved in the global market. CROSSFIRE, launched in 2007, is a first-person shooting game and is currently played in more than 80 countries worldwide by approximately one billion gamers. Smilegate’s flagship MMORPG Lost Ark, is played in 160 countries by 1.32M concurrent users. Smilegate is steadily solidifying its position as a “global intellectual property powerhouse.”