If you believe the more hysterical newspapers, the quiet-spoken, articulate man I am meeting today in London is the biggest threat to our nation's youth since the Sex Pistols swore TV presenter Bill Grundy into oblivion.

Even Hillary Clinton has said her say, claiming that his work is “stealing the innocence of our children”.

You might think that a man this notorious would be a household name, but though the work he helps create has smashed sales records and made headlines worldwide, Dan Houser has stayed firmly out of the limelight, his entry on the all-encompassing online encyclopaedia Wikipedia stretching to a mere nine lines.

In his 35 years, Houser has gone from the genteel surroundings of St Paul's School and Christchurch College, Oxford, to be one of the main creative forces behind the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, whose last main instalment, Grand Theft Auto IV, was the most successful entertainment product in history, until Modern Warfare 2 came along.

Shaven-headed, Houser sits back in a comfortable chair at the Chelsea headquarters of Rockstar, the games label he created with his elder brother, Sam. At each question, he pauses to formulate an answer, before delivering it word-perfect, punctuated occasionally by an excited waving of the arms.

Grand Theft Auto, or GTA as it is known, is a series that has redefined what is possible in video games. Players take on the identity of a character at the dubious fringes of society, who by committing crimes can rise to the top.

It is controversial because it offers you free will. Should you choose to, you can ignore the crime-based missions and explore the city on foot. Equally, you can steal cars, shoot policemen, or start your own drugs trade.

The final instalment of GTA IV, The Ballad of Gay Tony, is currently riding high in the games charts. Set in the same meticulously re-created New York (rechristened Liberty City) as the main GTA IV title, it explores the nightlife of the city, following on from the immigrant experience in GTA IV and living as a member of a biker gang in the first extra GTA IV instalment, The Lost and The Damned.

“The game evolved out of our love of watching live car chases on TV, or American movies and so on,” Houser explains in an accent that betrays his southern counties upbringing, despite his 11 years in New York. “The game is set in a world that is like the world would be if it were the way the media says it is.”

It's an irony lost on much of the media itself, which has gleefully pounced on nearly everything produced by Rockstar. Bully, a game about boarding school, was briefly banned in the UK, while Manhunt 2, a bloody serial killer black comedy, ran into serious trouble with the UK censors because it called on players to reassemble severed body parts to make progress.

“Manhunt 2 was not a good situation,” Houser concedes. “When a game gets banned, it means we’re not doing our first job, of making the investors back their money.”

But for sheer controversy generation, Grand Theft Auto is impossible to beat. The amoral universe in which the characters live presents players with unlimited opportunities to kill, maim and steal. The series has been the target of innumerable complaints and lawsuits in the United States, for everything from its use of sexual imagery to drunken driving, and in Thailand GTA IV was banned after a 19-year-old player killed a taxi driver and stole his cab as a direct result of playing the game.

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