‘Grand Theft Auto’ Creator Buys Second Palisades Home

It’s been barely two years since Dan Houser and Krystyna Jakubiak purchased an unfinished ocean-view mansion in Pacific Palisades for a whopping $31 million. Now records indicate the English video game mogul and his longtime Russian voice actress wife have just doled out $8.5 million for another residence in the same area, this one a traditional New England-inspired spread resting within an inland neighborhood near Palisades Village.

Originally listed March 21 for a speck under $10 million, the nearly new home sold just nine days later at a substantial $1.5 million discount. The deal also went down just days before L.A.’s controversial new mansion tax was instituted, saving the seller from owing some $340,000 in additional taxes.

Newly built in 2018, the wood-shingled structure rests atop an attached two-car garage and basement, and features six bedrooms and seven baths sprawled across 7,000 square feet of open-concept living space on two levels adorned throughout with blonde hardwood floors, high ceilings and wainscoted walls.

In addition to formal living and dining rooms, other main-level highlights include a bookshelf-lined library, plus a fireside family room boasting glass doors spilling out to a landscaped backyard enclosed with a hedge-topped stone wall, and hosting a pool and spa, built-in barbecue and custom fire-pit. There’s also a gourmet kitchen, which comes complete with an expansive eat-in island, high-end Miele, Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, and an accompanying breakfast nook and butler’s pantry.

A winding skylight-topped staircase heads upstairs, where the master retreat sports a sitting area nestled alongside a fireplace, private balcony and walk-in closet, as well as an Ann Sacks-tiled bath outfitted with dual vanities, a soaking tub and shower; and the basement level holds a movie theater, and an entertainment room flaunting a wet bar and temperature-controlled wine cellar.

Houser is best known for co-founding Rockstar Games with his older brother Sam in 1998 and producing the “Grand Theft Auto” franchise, which has generated revenues of more than $8 billion worldwide and become the highest-grossing media title of all time. After officially stepping down from the company in 2020, the 49-year-old reportedly formed Absurd Ventures In Games, which specializes in “ready-made interactive leisure and entertainment software development”; his estimated net worth is around $150 million.

Houser and Jakubiak recently downsized their real estate portfolio, having sold their elegant Brentwood mansion to Canadian Reuters heiress Taylor Thomson for $16 million. But they still own a $12.5 million mansion in New York City’s posh Brooklyn Heights neighborhood that’s got the added cache of having once belonged to Truman Capote, and a Santa Monica beach getaway they paid $6 million for in summer 2021.