Grand Theft Auto, one of the video game industry’s most prolific franchises, garnering both critical acclaim and disapproval alike. After the record-breaking success of GTA V, the creation of a sequel was inevitable, right? Well, Rockstar didn’t quite share the fan’s enthusiasm. Let’s take a look at the elusive nature of the supposed “GTA VI” and why its delayed creation may in part be down to a playerbase that’s too loyal for its own good.
The Golden Mile
When it comes to triple-A, open-world titles, Rockstar’s your go-to developer. Red Dead Redemption, Bully, Max Payne and of course, GTA all line the accoladed halls of their catalogue. You stamp that R* logo on a game and you know you’ve got good sales, that’s a powerful tool to have. Less known, however, the GTA franchise wasn’t actually Rockstar’s brainchild. Rather, it was BMG Interactive that helmed the series in 1997. Rockstar then took over the mantle in 1998 when Take-Two, Rockstar’s parent company, bought out the aforementioned studio. During this transition, two BMG employees, Sam and Dan Houser were assimilated into Rockstar and continued to helm the franchise under their new corporate overlords. In an interview with Famitsu back in 2011, Dan said how “(I) think we succeeded precisely because we didn’t concentrate on profit”, a sentiment that we may come back to.
Grand Theft Auto V was the seventh entry into the mainline titles and its release in 2013 broke industry records, achieving over $800 million in day one sales and reaching the $1 billion milestone within three days. Clearly, Rockstar had done something right. Maybe that thing was Grand Theft Online, a separate yet intrinsically attached addition to the base game that was released two weeks post-launch. In a multiplayer approach to GTA, up to thirty players could join into the same lobby and participate in a similar gameplay loop to the single player but inside of a constantly evolving world with friends (and terrible, terrible randoms). It was a rough start; weeks of connectivity issues plagued the fans with rewards frequenting players’ in-game accounts. This was merely a hiccup in the face of what was to come, however, with it growing into a sprawling multiplayer experience that would receive updates for years to come. It has managed to maintain a regular player base to this day, providing both Rockstar and subsequently the fans with a dilemma: If GTA V was so popular amongst fans (and financially beneficial), why spend the time and resources on making another?
Well, the good news is that GTA VI exists. Despite many players’ worries that the surprise success of GTA Online, combined with the accolade gathering Red Dead Redemption 2, would arm Rockstar with enough reasons to overlook a sequel, Rockstar has confirmed that the next GTA is in development, phew! The press release even confirmed fans’ suspicions of GTA Online playing a part, Rockstar citing the “unprecedented longevity of GTA V” before confirming, “active development… is well underway”. Good news aside, what exactly did Rockstar mean by “unprecedented longevity” and did it have anything at all to do with what makes the world go round?
Yes, as far as Rockstar’s concerned, money does indeed rotate the Earth’s axis. Seven long years into the lifecycle of GTA Online and the mode is still receiving constant updates including the fan favourite heist update amongst other game-changing features. As the saying goes, an update on a bi-annual period keeps player base decay away, player numbers never dropping below 100k a month in the last two years alone. This abundance of updates was strange when compared to Red Dead Redemption 2 and how its very own online mode had received a third of the number of updates that GTA Online received in that time. Parenting 101, never pick favourites…
This all begins to make sense when you look at the numbers. GTA Online made quite a bit of money. NetBet reported that the game made $911 million dollars in 2020 alone. At least I cancelled Netflix. Although rereleases of the game contribute to this amount, three “new” versions having been released since 2013, they pale in comparison to the real cash cow of GTA. Or should I say cash shark. Shark Cards: only $99.99 for some digital in-game currency. That was the most expensive option anyway but you can bet your cotton socks that this bundle is the best value for money, not that you’d be able to afford socks by that point.
More Bang for your Buck
With all the content-filled updates, players needed money quick, especially if they wanted to partake in the new content. Take the “Los Santos Tuners” DLC for example. It would require you to spend $1.7 million to purchase an auto shop, the hub that would unlock the majority of new content for you to play for yourself. This, combined with new vehicles in each update constantly ramping up in price, pushed players into taking the easy route to those millions. Remember Dan’s quote?
The first indication of this “unprecedented longevity” was when the announced single-player DLC mysteriously never materialized. Funnily enough, in 2021, leakers discovered single-player content that was never added to the game such as a zombie apocalypse survival mode, oh what could’ve been. Now a smart person would assume that the single-player DLC was scrapped in favour of more money-making content updates for GTA Online. Psst, you’re one of the smart ones. In an interview with Rockstar director of Design, Imran Sarwar, the conversation moved onto the topic of the single-player DLC. Imran took the opportunity to say how, “the online component had a lot of potential but to come close to realizing that potential, also sucked up a lot of resources.” “Potential” huh? I think we all know what potential really means. This was the problem though, players loved GTA Online. Did they love it a little too much?
Sadly, the people who wanted the next GTA the most were also the ones responsible for its delay. Rockstar knew that GTA Online was making them easy money and so were in no rush at all to waste time creating a whole new game. In this regard, Rockstar acted similarly to other publishers. Take EA and their sporting titles. It’s fairly safe to say that the year-to-year releases aren’t the most innovative. Fans even admit to this. It’s simple for EA, they see a loyal player who will always buy their product and as such, have no need to innovate. They can just repackage the same product with a few minor changes and ship it out, they’re going to get money either way. EA themselves are aware; John Riccitiello, the ex-president of EA, said how, “For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat” in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Call of Duty is another franchise that operates on the same vicious logic; their 2019 title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, is an almost verbatim title to one of the franchise’s popular older titles, clearly using this association to generate more hype around the game which in turn worked. Reboots do make a pretty penny. However, some games such as Halo Infinite and the Assassin’s Creed franchise have shown fans that there is hope! The former cutting in-game store prices in response to fan outcry, and the latter taking a break from their historically annual release schedule. I guess there is a light at the end of the consumerist tunnel.
Despite these glimmers of hope, this is an issue that is becoming more and more apparent due to the financial boom that the video game industry has recently undergone. Clearly, some studios are taking initiative and not letting the allure of money completely overtake them but the question is, is it enough? When it comes to Rockstar, time is the fan’s ally. This is a company that has been reaping the rewards of its predatory monetization approaches for years and it will take a large shift in the industry to uproot these almost decade-long approaches. But hey, another GTA is on its way! Let’s hope the pre-order bonus is a Zimmer frame…
Words by David Stanley