GTA 5 has suffered a brand new leak that means Rockstar Video games had bold, city-sized DLC plans for the sport.
Experiences rising on-line at this time point out a close to 200GB model of the GTA 5 supply code initially leaked in 2023 has now been made public, and events are analyzing it as we converse. The spotlight here’s what appears to be like like a Liberty City DLC for GTA 5 that clearly by no means noticed the sunshine of day (GTA On-line’s monumental success steered Rockstar away from story DLC in the direction of multiplayer targeted updates).
In response to X / Twitter user TJGM, the Liberty City DLC discovered within the information has been extrapolated and visualized to indicate simply how a lot larger this model of the town is in comparison with the one present in GTA 4. “This is a take a look at the expanded Liberty City format,” they tweeted. “This define of the map is drawn based mostly on the place shorelines are, the traces point out zones that play shoreline audio.”
There may be hypothesis on-line that this Liberty City DLC might have been held again for GTA 6, however there isn’t any proof to recommend that’s Rockstar’s plan.
Extra has emerged from this leak: Agent Trevor DLC mission names; reduce automobiles, reduce dialogue, reduce cutscenes, and extra on GTA 5. There additionally seems to be very early GTA 6 work within the information.
On Agent Trevor, GTA followers have identified for a while that Rockstar labored on a single-player DLC for GTA 5 that will have seen Trevor assume the function of a undercover agent. In 2024, actor Steven Ogg mentioned Rockstar initially deliberate to make a narrative growth targeted on his character, Trevor, with it thought to have fallen by the wayside because the developer targeted on the money cow that was GTA On-line.
Ogg was joined by Michael actor Ned Luke and Franklin actor Shawn Fonteno in a Questions and Solutions session with Streamily, and the trio make clear what they claimed was scrapped downloadable content material for GTA 5 that starred Trevor as a Federal Investigation Bureau agent.
“Initially they had been gonna do persevering with tales of Michael, Franklin, and Trevor,” Luke mentioned, and Ogg expanded on his model. “We additionally had that actually cool s**t of — and I overlook if it was DLC, I do not know — however the place Trevor was gonna be undercover, he works for the FEDs,” Ogg mentioned. “And we did shoot some of that stuff with James Bond Trevor. He is nonetheless type of a f**ok up however he is doing his finest. And we shot some stuff after which it simply disappeared they usually by no means adopted up on it.”
Additionally in 2024, Joe Robino, who was a senior digicam artist and digital cinematographer working at Rockstar’s New York workplace from 2010 to 2016, spoke to the SanInPlay YouTube channel about why the GTA 5 story DLC was canceled.
“Quite a bit of the crew went to do Pink Lifeless Redemption 2 straight away and I took on this different challenge that was a standalone DLC for GTA that by no means got here out and it was kick ass,” Robino revealed.
“That was my factor. I used to be one of the primary editors, digicam artists, and on-stage stuff. We cut up our groups into two. I stayed on GTA On-line after which this DLC, which Steven Ogg [the actor who played Trevor Philips] was a vital half of.
“After which some of the crew overlapped and went to RDR2 early on, after which we simply type of did this [flipped motion], as a result of when that recreation obtained shelved, we spent a lot cash… rather a lot of that stuff although did find yourself making it I imagine into later iterations of GTA On-line, I feel. So it’s not like they wasted it.
“It was actually actually good. However when GTA On-line got here out it was a lot of a money cow and folks had been loving it a lot that it was arduous to make an argument {that a} standalone DLC would outcompete that. I feel trying again now you could possibly in all probability do each. However that was a enterprise resolution they made. I used to be a bit of upset about that.
“That really was rather a lot of the explanation for me being a bit of bitter at the moment. As a result of I used to be like yo, WTF guys? This s**t’s superior. Let’s preserve going. Let’s end this s**t.”
Followers have had snippets of details about GTA 5’s fabled story DLC over time. GTA dataminers have additionally found a reference to Trevor with a jetpack, which suggests story mode DLC was repurposed into GTA On-line, as Robino mentioned. In 2018, Rockstar lastly unveiled GTA On-line’s Doomsday Heist missions alongside the Thruster jetpack.
Final 12 months, talking on the Lex Fridman podcast, Rockstar Video games co-founder and former lead author Dan Houser addressed the DLC for the primary time, insisting that if the developer had continued with it, it wouldn’t have been capable of make 2018’s Pink Lifeless Redemption 2.
“The web is aware of we made a DLC… single-player DLC for GTA 5 that by no means got here out,” Houser mentioned.
“It was one whenever you performed as Trevor, however he was a undercover agent. It was cute. It by no means fairly got here collectively, and it was by no means completed. It was about half accomplished when it obtained deserted. However I feel if that had come out, we in all probability wouldn’t have gotten to make Pink Lifeless 2. So, there are at all times compromises.”
What strategy will Rockstar take with GTA 6? Will it return to story DLC, or give attention to no matter new model of GTA On-line it has up its sleeve? Some suppose Rockstar will ultimately add a number of cities, together with Liberty City, to GTA 6, alongside GTA On-line 2 or regardless of the multiplayer mode finally ends up being known as. For now, although, it’s a case of what may need been for GTA 5.
Final week, as half of the continued employment tribunal to find out the destiny of the 31 GTA 6 builders Rockstar fired final 12 months, the corporate revealed the acute lengths it goes to so as to forestall safety breaches.
Rockstar has suffered a string of high-profile leaks over time, most not too long ago the ‘CyberLeek’ incident which noticed GTA 6 gameplay hit the web forward of the sport’s Netflix particular. Talking on the tribunal, Rockstar mentioned it is beneath intense scrutiny because the developer of GTA.
“Guarding the secrets and techniques of the distinctive gameplay and design are akin to Apple defending the iPhone or Coke defending its method,” Rockstar mentioned, including that it adopts “the safety posture of a Wall Avenue financial institution.”
In April 2025, Rockstar dismissed an worker in Lincoln, UK, who it alleged disclosed confidential details about GTA 6 to a 3rd celebration who then revealed the data to social media. Rockstar dismissed an worker within the U.S. in November 2023 and one other in India in November 2025 for 2 separate acts of data leaking.
Rockstar identified the frequency of espresso store journeys by workers and pizza deliveries to the Rockstar places of work have been monitored by followers, and site visitors volumes by its workplaces had been allegedly tracked in a bid to get an inside observe on the GTA 6 launch date.
Wesley Yin-Poole
Director, Information
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You’ll be able to attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.