A former Rockstar developer has mentioned the corporate canceled a standalone Grand Theft Auto 5 story DLC as a result of GTA Online emerged as a “money cow” quickly after launch.
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 this much-rumored GTA 5 story DLC fell by the wayside after GTA 5 got here out in September 2013.
“Rather a lot of the crew went to do Crimson Useless 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 break up our groups into two. I stayed on GTA Online after which this DLC, which Steven Ogg [the actor who played Trevor Philips] was a crucial half of.
“After which some of the crew overlapped and went to RDR2 early on, after which we simply variety of did this [flipped motion], as a result of when that sport acquired shelved, we spent a lot cash… a lot of that stuff although did find yourself making it I consider into later iterations of GTA Online, I feel. So it’s not like they wasted it.
“It was actually actually good. However when GTA Online got here out it was a lot of a money cow and folks have been loving it a lot that it was onerous to make an argument that a standalone DLC would outcompete that. I feel trying again now you possibly can in all probability do each. However that was a enterprise choice they made. I used to be a little upset about that.
“That truly was a lot of the rationale for me being a little bitter at the moment. Because I used to be like yo, WTF guys? This s**t’s superior. Let’s preserve going. Let’s end this s**t.”
IGN has requested Rockstar for remark.
Followers have had snippets of details about GTA 5’s fabled story DLC over time. Certainly, Steven Ogg has spoken about it and what it will have concerned. “Trevor was going to be undercover, he was working with the feds,” Ogg has mentioned. “We did shoot some of that stuff with ‘James Bond Trevor’, the place he’s nonetheless variety of a f**k-up, however he’s doing his greatest. Then it simply disappeared they usually by no means did it, they by no means adopted up on it.”
GTA dataminers have additionally found a reference to Trevor with a jetpack, which suggests story mode DLC was repurposed into GTA Online, as Robino says. In 2018, Rockstar lastly unveiled GTA Online’s Doomsday Heist missions alongside the Thruster, a jetpack that is nonetheless unique to the multiplayer mode to this present day.
Rockstar is now targeted on getting GTA 6 prepared for its fall 2025 launch window. There are a quantity of questions followers have of Rockstar’s plans, together with whether or not GTA 6 will, not like GTA 5, obtain story DLC. And what occurs to the present model of GTA Online when GTA 6 inevitably introduces its personal model?
In the meantime, in the identical interview, Robino mentioned the well-documented crunch and secrecy Rockstar employees endured whereas engaged on GTA 5 and Crimson Useless Redemption 2. “We acquired in all probability midway by means of it [the GTA5 story DLC], and we put a pause on it,” he mentioned. “I used to be additionally doing GTA Online at the moment, and I used to be additionally doing RDR2. All of us have been. We labored a lot, man. For six or seven years, I used to be working nearly one year a 12 months with our crew.”
For years, Rockstar had a infamous status throughout the online game trade for brutal crunch within the making of Grand Theft Auto and Crimson Useless video games. Nevertheless, following the discharge of Crimson Useless Redemption 2 in 2018 and the shocking stories about the human cost of its development, media stories instructed adjustments have been made to the corporate’s tradition to keep away from the identical factor taking place in the course of the improvement of GTA 6.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.