Grand Theft Auto Online started as a mere side attraction in Grand Theft Auto 5 earlier than it expanded into its personal colossal beast. GTA Online has since made billions of dollars and is commonly up to date with sizable new chapters that embrace 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 a bit.
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, choosing up packages from the Southside and making a number of hundred bucks at a time. Now, we’re all multimillionaires, rolling round in tremendous automobiles, proudly owning nightclubs, arcades, and splendid 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 choose some missions from our huge underground bunker.
Few dwell 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 totally. 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. (Polygon 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 need to sit, wait, and speculate. In some methods, it’s an thrilling proposition — the leap between the physics and graphics of GTA 5 and Pink Lifeless Redemption 2 was large, 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?
![A GTA Online player lines up their shot on a sniper rifle. In the distance waits their escape vehicle, a red helicopter.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wRKJYncnl_ZGEYNeg_YK5Flmw4k=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25337849/ss_e8cd9901cec9bc5e7c6b8a9dc3e746fa77988a26.jpg)
Picture: Rockstar Video games
“I’ve been taking part in 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 way 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 need that to imply one thing.”
A serious 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 the 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 once they purchase shell firms, actual property, and legal enterprises. That is the usual life cycle of a MMO character; you begin as a bit man, and finally turn out to be a strong determine aboard a flying motorbike with heat-seeking missiles.
Sometimes, an MMO ends attributable to financial or improvement elements. However GTA On-line, each default and modded, is so wildly standard that the lights are nonetheless on and content material remains to be coming.
“I totally count on a wipe, and I don’t actually care,” says OneTwoZero, one other fan who boasts a playtime of hundreds of hours. “I wiped my progress shifting 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 sort of loss I may take.”
![A GTA Online player poses with their neat rifle, standing next to a sunset sky with a palm tree and their expensive super car in the background.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5_4Tcnw-pTSyxbxn-GGhbs9cYaA=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25337866/ss_e929649b2b98ad76795d92d8489470bc5dbffddb.jpg)
Picture: Rockstar Video games
“I like Rockstar’s map design and world-building, clearly. I’ve spent lots of of hours in San Andreas,” Artie, one other GTA On-line role-player, instructed Polygon. “However for me, an important 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 at all times topic to leaks — actual and imaginary — which helps create an air of uncertainty across the subsequent recreation. Even the sport’s modded neighborhood, taking part in exterior 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 can be curated by neighborhood groups, each hobbyist and for revenue. Rockstar stated on the time that the funding would “assist them discover new methods to help this unimaginable 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 feel it’ll be simpler to get folks into the interest, and there’ll be extra actions we are able to arrange in recreation. However I fear that Rockstar will cost for entry. Need to play a Motorbike Membership? Pay $15 for the belongings. Need to begin a detective company? Pay Rockstar to allow it in your server. We’ll all need to restart our tales for Vice Metropolis every time the FiveM server for that’s prepared, however I’m afraid that it’ll have a subscription charge or a price ticket connected.”
The potential of restarting recent isn’t unprecedented; Rockstar has wiped participant progress earlier than whereas migrating between platforms. Different MMORPGs have needed to cope with resets. Most famously, Closing Fantasy 14 burned the previous version of the game 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 sort of magic-bullet resolution is a bit trickier to move 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 may sink an enormously worthwhile and profitable spinoff.
“All I hope is that my man will get a great send-off,” says Norrin. “After he’s brought on a lot chaos, he deserves to go down swinging.”