Grand Theft Auto 6 now feels quite a bit more tangible—preorders are live, and November is right around the corner. But amid this flurry of information and unrelenting hype came a bit of bad news for the GTA Online crowd: GTA 6 is being pushed as a “singleplayer experience”.
Despite its impending launch, there’s actually been precious little information about the next phase of the madcap online world. Granted, there’s been precious little information about the game period. Rockstar knows it doesn’t need to give anything away. It could ignore the pleas for a gameplay trailer right up until launch if it wanted to.
Fraser Brown
I’ve been getting up to no good in Rockstar’s off-kilter vision of America since 1997 and never felt it needed multiplayer—that is, until I saw all the new ways to play that GTA Online offered. From the madcap co-op shenanigans to the incredibly dedicated roleplaying communities, Rockstar and, critically, GTAO’s players created something genuinely impressive. But that doesn’t mean we need to rush towards an online sequel. It deserves more time to cook.
Regardless, we know some new version of the online mode must be coming. GTAO is why people are still playing this 13-year-old game, and while Red Dead Online never exploded in popularity like its predecessor, this doesn’t feel like something Rockstar is going to give up on—certainly not after it acquired Cfx.re, the team behind FiveM.
So we can reasonably assume that GTAO 2 will launch later—perhaps to coincide with the arrival of GTA 6 on PC, which really is the home of GTA roleplaying. There’s no indication when that might happen, though. This is classic Rockstar. It’s a closed book, and it doesn’t matter that PC is GTA’s most popular individual platform, because the near-mythical reputation of this company means it doesn’t need to use the conventional marketing playbook.
Let’s face it, there’s also probably a more insidious reason: If you own both a PC and a console and are eager for GTA, you’ll almost certainly be double dipping. I know I will be. Despite Sony’s claim that GTA 6 will be best on PlayStation 5, we know the PC version will be far superior. But the allure, the FOMO, they are too strong.
This doesn’t just benefit me; it benefits the GTA Online fans as well.
As a journalist and critic, I naturally wish Rockstar loosened its lips a little, and I have a real problem with it selling a $100 game without letting prospective players actually know what it will be like to play. I am, however, not remotely fazed by the initial lack of multiplayer; indeed, I think it’s a good thing.
Live service games have utterly dominated this decade, and while I do have some favourites, I tend to crave games where I don’t need to share the space with a bunch of randos. GTAO is impressive and I had a lot of fun with it, but GTA’s overwhelming popularity, since 1997 and until GTA 5, has been down to its singleplayer capers. And that should be the priority, at least initially.
This doesn’t just benefit me; it benefits the GTA Online fans as well. By creating space between the two projects, both of them will get the attention they deserve. Of course Rockstar has been working on the online component for years, but there’s a vast gulf between working on multiple projects and releasing them at exactly the same time.
Basically: there needs to be a focus. Given the length of its development time and the vast amount of money that’s presumably been put into this behemoth, we can realistically expect an incredibly ambitious and gargantuan game. There’s also an expectation of polish, but there will doubtless be myriad bugs and issues at launch. If Rockstar was also launching a massive multiplayer platform at exactly the same time, well that way leads to disaster.
With just one new live game to worry about, Rockstar will be better able to ensure a smooth launch and shore up any gaps left by its final polish pass. We will get a superior version of GTA 6, and then, further down the road, the best possible version of GTA Online 2.
That way leads to disaster.
Rockstar will also presumably have a huge amount of data and feedback to sift through after the singleplayer launch, which will allow it to adapt GTA Online 2 to the needs of its players. Any new systems and mechanics introduced in GTA 6 can then be refined, or changed if they create unwelcome friction, which would only become worse in a neverending online experience.
I’m hopeful—perhaps foolishly so—that the gap will also allow Rockstar to build GTA Online 2 with its community. With GTA 6 out in the wild and likely making a disgusting amount of money, maybe Rockstar will feel like actually opening up a bit, using GTA 6’s playerbase to help make GTA Online 2 something properly special.
Besides: how many people would really be diving into GTA Online 2 right away? In GTA 5, GTA Online was effectively a sequel. It’s what you plunge into after you’ve spent 100 hours mucking around solo. Granted, there’s now a massive online community, so I have no doubt that some people will be more excited to get stuck into the sequel to their favourite online hangout, but they also stand to benefit the most from Rockstar taking its time rather than releasing two complex games on the same day.
Honestly, it’s also just nice to see a singleplayer game dominating the dreaded discourse. I’ve been working in this industry since 2011, and for too much of it we’ve been bouncing from one multiplayer game to the next. If I ever become a supervillain, my origin story will be that I had to edit one too many Arc Raiders stories.
So yeah, this is good for everyone, and while I like to pretend I am too cynical to get swept up in all the hype, I am genuinely thrilled at the prospect of playing a new singleplayer GTA. Even if I will have to play it on my puny PS5. grand the
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