GTA Online’s community is in limbo while hype builds for GTA 6

Grand Theft Auto On-line began as a mere aspect attraction in Grand Theft Auto 5 earlier than it expanded into its personal colossal beast. GTA On-line has since made billions of {dollars} and is recurrently up to date with sizable new chapters that embody cameos from real-world celebrities like Dr. Dre. The sport is now an MMO in its personal proper, serving as a alternative for the single-player DLC chapters that Rockstar used to launch. However with Grand Theft Auto 6 on the distant horizon, GTA On-line gamers are beginning to sweat slightly.

My buddies and I’ve all sunk over a decade into GTA On-line; I’ve personally performed on and off since round 2013. All of us began as humble drug sellers, selecting up packages from the Southside and making just a few hundred bucks at a time. Now, we’re all multimillionaires, rolling round in tremendous automobiles, proudly owning nightclubs, arcades, and opulent residential suites. If we wish a change of tempo, we are able to go pull a heist on a on line casino or crime lord’s personal villa, or decide some missions from our large underground bunker.

Few stay on-line video games have been trucking for this lengthy. For each Warframe or World of Warcraft, there are a dozen video games which have both quietly entered upkeep mode or shut down fully. GTA On-line is even nonetheless being up to date.

Nevertheless, Rockstar hasn’t come near saying any particulars on a web based recreation mode for the subsequent recreation, and we’re nonetheless a 12 months out from even getting the core marketing campaign of Grand Theft Auto 6. (gamerjive has reached out to Rockstar for clarification and can replace if we obtain a response.) The result’s that gamers of each GTA On-line and personal role-play servers have to sit down, wait, and speculate. In some methods, it’s an thrilling proposition — the leap between the physics and graphics of GTA 5 and Purple Useless Redemption 2 was enormous, and presumably we’ll see much more enhancements within the subsequent GTA. However the query stays: What occurs to all of the progress that gamers have at present earned in GTA On-line?

Picture: Rockstar Video games

“I’ve been enjoying GTA On-line for years, and between Prime unlocks and grinding, I’ve gotten a lot of the great things,” says Norrin, a GTA On-line fan I spoke to by means of Discord. “I’m OK with saying goodbye to companies and automobiles, however I’ve spent extra time with my on-line man than I’ve with Michael or Trevor. I would like that to imply one thing.”

A significant distinction between GTA On-line and its rivals is that all the things takes place within the state of San Andreas. It has a big map to discover, from town of Los Santos as much as the quieter communities of Sandy Shores and Paleto Bay. Whereas different video games take the participant to new fantasy continents or realms, Rockstar unlocks extra of the map for the participant after they purchase shell companies, actual property, and legal enterprises. That is the usual life cycle of a MMO character; you begin as slightly man, and ultimately develop into a strong determine aboard a flying bike with heat-seeking missiles.

Often, an MMO ends attributable to financial or growth elements. However GTA On-line, each default and modded, is so wildly fashionable that the lights are nonetheless on and content material continues to be coming.

“I totally anticipate a wipe, and I don’t actually care,” says OneTwoZero, one other fan who boasts a playtime of 1000’s of hours. “I wiped my progress transferring between consoles earlier than, I’ve misplaced progress to bugs and server points. For me, the technological enhancements that we’re going to see with [Grand Theft Auto] 6 outstrip any form of loss I might take.”

Picture: Rockstar Video games

“I like Rockstar’s map design and world-building, clearly. I’ve spent a whole bunch of hours in San Andreas,” Artie, one other GTA On-line role-player, informed gamerjive. “However for me, a very powerful factor is the folks I play with and the tales we inform. I don’t care what occurs with the sequel so long as I can hold utilizing it for role-play.”

The Grand Theft Auto franchise is all the time topic to leaks — actual and imaginary — which helps create an air of uncertainty across the subsequent recreation. Even the sport’s modded neighborhood, enjoying outdoors Rockstar’s sandbox, has trigger for concern. Rockstar Video games acquired Cfx.re, the crew behind Grand Theft Auto’s hottest mod, in 2023. Cfx.re runs FiveM, a platform that enables gamers to launch into customized role-play servers which might be curated by neighborhood groups, each hobbyist and for revenue. Rockstar mentioned on the time that the funding would “assist them discover new methods to help this unbelievable neighborhood and enhance the companies they supply to their builders and gamers.”

“I’m excited for the technical upgrades and what that may imply for role-play,” says Artie. “I believe it’ll be simpler to get folks into the passion, and there’ll be extra actions we are able to arrange in recreation. However I fear that Rockstar will cost for entry. Wish to play a Motorbike Membership? Pay $15 for the property. Wish to begin a detective company? Pay Rockstar to allow it in your server. We’ll all need to restart our tales for Vice Metropolis each time the FiveM server for that’s prepared, however I’m afraid that it’ll have a subscription charge or a price ticket hooked up.”

The potential of restarting recent isn’t unprecedented; Rockstar has wiped participant progress earlier than whereas migrating between platforms. Different MMORPGs have needed to take care of resets. Most famously, Last Fantasy 14 burned the earlier model of the sport down with a magical apocalypse. However the state of Los Santos is a bit more mundane, regardless of the flying bikes and nuclear bunkers, and that form of magic-bullet answer is slightly trickier to cross off. How do you keep the funding, monetary or emotional, that gamers have put into the sport whereas carrying over into a brand new entry within the franchise? Rockstar might want to thread the needle after Grand Theft Auto 6 is launched, and failure to take action might sink an enormously worthwhile and profitable spinoff.

“All I hope is that my man will get a superb send-off,” says Norrin. “After he’s brought on a lot chaos, he deserves to go down swinging.”