After two decades of the GTA series, Lazlow Jones has now teamed up with Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser for a new venture in AI satire.
Lazlow Jones, the former Rockstar Games writer and producer known for his radio host roles in the Grand Theft Auto series, has opened up about his departure from the American game developer and shared a chilling encounter with an overzealous fan.
Jones, who spent nearly two decades shaping the satirical world of GTA, left Rockstar in 2020 after a series of personal and professional revelations. The reason behind this was his sister's terminal cancer diagnosis, which came just weeks after the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018.
"I spent a lot of time writing comedy from chemo wards," Jones shared in the IGN interview. This experience forced him to reevaluate his priorities, ultimately leading to his exit from the company that had been his creative home for over 19 years.
However, it wasn't just personal reasons that drove Jones away from Rockstar. After shipping nine GTA games between 2001 and 2020, he was ready for a change. "I was excited to work on a new intellectual property," Jones explained, revealing the fatigue that can come from working on a single franchise for so long. It's refreshing to see that the reason isn't drama or some disagreement leaving grudges.
Perhaps the most interesting revelation from Jones' interview was a disturbing phone call he received during the development of GTA V. A fan, claiming to represent followers of the game's fictional Epsilon Program, left a message on his work phone that sent chills down his spine.
"She genuinely sounded like she was a follower of the Epsilon Program," Jones stated. "It's crazy when you make a satire of something... We created a website for the Epsilon Program back in 2004, and all the copy on that, it's in my mind very clear that it's a money-grab, modern day fictional religion. But they sounded like proper followers of it. It excited me and scared me to death simultaneously."
Rather than deterring the team, this bizarre encounter apparently inspired them to double down on the Epsilon Program in GTA V in true Rockstar fashion. They expanded its presence in the game, creating more missions and even writing a full in-game bible called The Epsilon Tract. We wonder if this is where the idea to use the Epsilon Program to explain respawning in Online came from...
So, what is Jones up to these days? Well, to no one's surprise, he has teamed up with Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser at a new business appropriately called Absurd Ventures. The duo's focus now is to satirize the future, particularly the potential pitfalls of AI and technology. To be fair, this sounds like a natural evolution for the minds behind GTA's biting commentary on contemporary American culture.
We're eager to see what Jones and Houser cook up.
