Rockstar Games co-founder spills the beans on why he left despite GTA's success

One of Rockstar Games' four co-founders, Jamie King, recently appeared for an interview with the Spanish Grand Theft Auto creator, Killaz. Over the course of the interview, the Rockstar co-founder spilled the beans on why he left the organization shortly after the rising success of the Grand Theft Auto franchise way back in 2006.

Viewers can watch the relevant section from 20:13 in the following video.

Fifteen years after his departure, King revealed that things were just going in a different trajectory for Rockstar Games than they were for him.

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Rockstar Games' Jamie King reveals that his departure from the organization was "personal"

Rockstar Games was founded in December 1998 by Dan Houser, Sam Houser, Terry Donovan, and Jamie King. King left the organization back in 2006, when the company began to see the rising success of the GTA franchise. Naturally, this raised a few eyebrows, but the reason behind the founder's departure was never revealed.

Rockstar Games founders (Image via Geek Culture)

Fifteen years later, in an interview with Killaz, King decided to get candid about his reasons behind bidding adieu to the organization that has released hit titles like the GTA franchise, Red Dead Redemption, and so many more.

"I left because I thought the situation was one-way, and the situation was actually a different way. The way I found out, I was just like ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ Just took all the fight, just took all the excitement out for me."

He revealed that at the time of his departure, the four of them had been working throughout the week for Rockstar Games, and were sacrificing a lot more than they wanted to. Naturally, King decided that that was not how he wanted to spend his days and decided to call it quits before things turned sour.

"I was like I don’t want to do it. I just don’t want to do it. At that point, we’d been working seven days a week, and I was sacrificing everything for it. I just felt like life is too short and there are other things I want to do. It was personal but I understood the terrain I was in, and if I didn’t like it I had to be the one that moves on."

King understood that since it was a difference of priority that he was facing with Rockstar Games, it was in the best interest of the company if he removed himself from it. Naturally, he wishes nothing but the best for the organization, given that he had been a key part of it when it rose to fame.