It's a very rare honor to have the chance to talk to this man, Sam Houser, the brains behind 'Grand Theft Auto' and many other very successful gaming series' developed by Rockstar Games. Grand Theft Auto IV is obviously his latest and undoubtably his most popular creation yet. Recently he has been talking to the media about himself and his games, something he very rarely does. The Houser Brothers, Sam and Dan, don't like having the spotlight put onto them, they rather people discuss their games rather then them themselves; very nobal really.

The Wall Street Journal has been lucky enough to speak with Sam Houser about Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar, the EA vs. Take-Two takeover and himself as a whole. The article is a must read for anybody who enjoy's hearing about the behind-the-scenes happenings of Rockstar Games, you can see the full article here. Below are some snippets we felt you might link to read, however we do insist you read the full article, it's well worth the read...

On Sam Houser:

Mr. Houser, 36 years old, sports a scruffy beard that stretches to the top of his chest. In a rare interview, he joked that associates have described him as a "lunatic" -- a reference to his creative intensity. Last year his studio hired a spiritual healer to exorcise bad vibes after the deaths of two fellow employees. He makes a habit of walking the streets of New York to study a hidden underworld of ex-cons, vagrants and other Diane Arbus-worthy subjects. Some of them have inspired characters in his games.

He's also a man of contradictions. "I'm about the most conservative guy you'll ever meet," says Mr. Houser, who lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two young children. "I have a panic attack if I get a parking ticket."

On Rockstar:

The "talent" at Rockstar, as they're called internally, make star-caliber money and might find EA's more traditional pay structure jarring. In 2005, a particularly strong year, Take-Two paid royalties of $84 million, according to company filings. The bulk of funds, say people familiar with the matter, went to Mr. Houser and other Rockstar executives. If EA succeeds in acquiring Take-Two, some analysts believe EA's star developers might demand a bigger share of game proceeds.

Another possible kink: Rockstar's history of autonomy. If EA ends up with Take-Two, Mr. Houser says it's unlikely that he would go so far as to seek EA's approval for game content. Still, he calls Mr. Riccitiello "the real deal" and sees some appeal in an EA alliance, which he says would make Rockstar a "much smaller fish in much bigger pond."

"I'm not someone who has any kind of problem with that," says Mr. Houser, who says EA turned him down for a job in the late 1990s. [Ironic really isn't it? They turned him down for a job a mer 15 years ago (if not less...) now they would kill to have his million dollar studios under there belt.]

The journal also showed some visual data of Grand Theft Auto, one is of the profit from games, the other is from the sale of games:

Left: As we see here Grand Theft Auto pushes the profit through the roof each time one is released, take 2004 for example, this was the year San Andreas was released, the profit was $1 billion dollars approx. Followed only by 2005 which had the PC version of San Andreas released, which made Take-Two and Rockstar $1.2 billion, so the PC version of games must be very popular when it comes to PC. Could be a hint as to why we may have a PC release of GTA IV? Let's hope so!

Below: It's clear that GTA IV is doing fantastically all ready, in the first week it sold 6 million copies, GTA VCS sold 4.5 million in it's entire time, with GTA LCS selling only 2 million more than IV in it's entire time. So from this we can see that the Grand Theft Auto series has a huge affect on the profit of Take-Two and Rockstar.

For more, we highly recommend reading the article at The Wall Street Journal article.