It’s been almost a decade since GTA 5, and developer Rockstar is perhaps beginning to feel the pinch. The studio – which admitted this week it’s effectively abandoning Red Dead Online – said that it understands “more than ever the need to exceed players’ expectations and for [GTA 6] to be the best it can possibly be”.
To be honest, it’s not been the best period for the juggernaut company. Disgruntled Red Dead Online fans are planning an in-game funeral for the multiplayer mode, as Rockstar redirects resources elsewhere. Meanwhile, last year’s GTA Trilogy was critically panned, and while it has improved over the past few months, it’s still not as good as it could and should be.
All of this, of course, serves as a backdrop to its ongoing reliance on GTA 5. While the recent PS5 port of the 2013 open world classic is excellent, it’s beginning to show its age, and a sequel is long overdue. The good news is that the firm is finally listening to fan feedback for GTA Online, and will roll out a slew of necessary improvements later in the summer.
But the jury’s still very much out on GTA 6. Speculation has it that this will be a vastly different experience to what long-time fans expect, with an emphasis on multiplayer and online connectivity. It’s going to be fascinating to see what the company comes up with – especially when you consider that a number of high-profile, veteran staff have since moved on to pastures new.
[source rockstargames.com]
Comments 63
As long as it still runs satire on everyone.
i hope offline campaign primary and online secondary. grand theft auto started offline should stay mainly.
id love it to be big liberty city , vice city and san andreas all in one big map, have brucie and ttttttrevor in the same car 🤣😂
i can dream 🤣😂
Years away can honestly see this coming out on ps6 usually it's at least 3 years from the first trailer before the fame comes out so in thinking 2027
I trust them to make something great. If there will never be single player story dlc then story mode needs to be longer.
I'm honestly no longer interested in the series. Loved it during the PS2 days. PS3 days were ok. Ignored it during the PS4 days given the GaaS model. I expect to never play this.
@kungfumongoose There’s a fine line between satire and punching down. It’s not satire to poke fun at somebody’s very identity, which is what GTA V did until it was recently patched out.
Rockstar have shown themselves to not be the developers they once were. I sadly have very low expectations of this game if it eventually ever does appear. With Red Dead Online being shut down and the total lack of support for single player games from their end I expect it to be GTA Online 2 in all but name.
@pip_muzz Exactly. For all intents and purposes, Rockstar is dead. At least to me.
RDR2 was brilliant. I have faith that GTA6 will be too.
Hope it’s a completely new map/city than the same old ones now but I have a feeling liberty city will be involved..
I would rather have Sleeping Dogs 2.
I'd be happy if the single player is as good as GTA V. But it's been a long time since they've last made a GTA game, they've lost some writers, and then there was all the issues with the trilogy remake.
I no longer trust Rockstar so i will wait to see what they show up with. The creative minds behind their best titles on PS2 and 3 are long gone now with many signing off after RDR2.
Hope they can prove me wrong as i'd love to live Rockstar again. But the focus on online leaves me cold im afraid
I mean, it doesn't need to do a ton to improve the formula and incorporate what they've learned from GTAO (it's so old there are simple things it could try and do that would change a lot). Make the big expansive story the long time fans expect, but make it fully playable in, say, 4 player co-op.
Pull a Saints Row and have the main character be a character, yes, but have them be fully customizable by the player. Make this more OUR story than ever before. Maybe give us some Mass Effect-like ability to make decisions in missions that make the rest of the story play out differently. And make sure it's not picking dialog options, but how you attack scenarios/missions. Tie it to the different way you could choose to do heists and stuff online. (Picking stealth in one mission would mean missions/story down the line played differently, for example.)
The bones are there to do something truly enhanced with the core game. I am just deathly afraid all they care about is building a more dynamic framework for the inevitable Online sequel and they will choose not to innovate where I and many players think it matters most.
Ok. Then don't make a trashy multiplayer
@Rob_230 it seems a lot of people here agree with me, Thier online focus is a great give away for what they are aiming for and it definitely will not be a "quality" experience that is for sure lol
I just want the single-player campaign to be shown some love. Seems like their only focus has been GTA Online. I understand it generates a ton of money for them, but damn, us single-player only folks still exist.
@MFTWrecks I much prefer the open world playground but with hand crafted content for the playable characters they create. I think that’s what makes these games great. However the idea of how we approach a mission effecting the story/missions down the line is a great idea. Like doing a heist and turning on a teammate will have them hunting you and trying to steal from you all game etc. Give us the nemesis system!!
I hope they improve the combat mechanics in GTA 6. Loved the single player mode in GTA 5 mainly because of the narrative and the mix between story driven missions and open world/sandbox exploration of Los Santos, but I didn't spend much time on the online mode because I didn't find the combat fun. I didn't like the combat in RDR2 either and didn't even finish the game, unfortunately. On the other hand of that are the Just Cause games. The story is the silliest thing, but the combat, both in vehicles and on foot gunplay, is so fun that it kept me going on until the end of the 3 and 4 Just Cause games.
They lost all the talent that made the previous entries so special. It's like when Bungie stopped making Halo. Sure the games are competent and they work...but that's all they are. I don't have any hopes or expectations for GTA6 currently. Not after how they've butchered their names over the past few years.
I'm very skeptical of GTA6. There's just too many factors that are going against it right now. I hope I'm wrong and it turns out great but if it really is more focused on the multiplayer then I'll just say that will only add to my skepticism greatly. I haven't really enjoyed any of Rockstar's multiplayer efforts thus far and I doubt a focus on that aspect would change my mind.
They should retire this game series… ha! Never, I’m sure! If you haven’t seen “Free Guy”, it’s a great satire of the satire that is GTA, highly recommended. I haven’t played these games since I was 13 for a reason.
I liked GTAV but didn’t love it and I have always been shocked that it has sold as well as it did. They got lucky with it. Tapping X to run is so outdated along with the alternate control scheme. It’s matchmaking system is horrendous. It’s melee system is very lacking compared to Sleeping Dogs, and it’s lack of a climbing system is very underwhelming. It doesn’t need to be like Assassin’s Creed, but its currently a joke. I remember jumping a small gap from one roof to another and the character goes rag doll.
I'm sure they're working on making their future MTX as 'satisfying' as possible.
So Rockstar finally decided to stop milking GTA V? lol
Whatever they do it's going to sell like crazy if it has "GTA VI" on the cover.
It always needed to do that, it always needed to exceed gta 5.... and that's extremely hard to do.
@OmegaStriver mechanics in a game 9 years old is a joke today? I swear you gamers are odd.
@Truee But I don't mean make our character nameless or a blank slate. Again, Saints Row for all its zaniness makes everyone "boss" the same boss.
I think GTA could do that. Like, you make your own Michael. Make him look however you like, I make him look how I want him to look. And our stories play similarly until it comes to the decision points I mentioned.
@OmegaStriver It's long been suspected its sales numbers have been significantly boosted by long time GTAO players who re-purchase the main game when it comes packaged with large Shark cards because it ends up being cheaper to do that than to buy the Shark cards alone. Those bundles get more heavily discounted more often than the Online currency cards alone do.
@Cutmastavictory I felt that way from its first couple of months released. I swear you gamers are odd.
“Speculation has it that this will be a vastly different experience to what long-time fans expect, with an emphasis on multiplayer and online connectivity”
If they drop the single player mode completely then I simply won’t buy it.
10 years ago, or there about, mid 20s (ok late 20s) me was buzzing for GTA V. And yeah I bought it on PS3, XBone and PS5.
Now, can honestly say I'm not all that interested in the next installment and if it pushes towards an online/connected experience as the main guts of the game, that will rule it out for me.
And let's be honest, a lot of what made these games was the satire and parody, I think we are bordering on living in a world that is fast becoming a parody of itself in many respects. Be interested to see how they handle that, a more serious tone maybe?
I'd honestly love it if they made another UK version of the game. Not necessarily GTA London but set somewhere in the UK
Different type of game obviously but I really enjoyed the UK setting in Forza Horizon 4
@OmegaStriver very true. Recently I went back to some old 360 games to try and do everything. I just didn't want to with gta 5. I did for games like arkham city but gta 5 just didn't grab me. Even in 2013 it felt bad somehow. Nowadays it must really struggle at least on last last gen
@Uncharted2007 Yeah, I'm sure you won't...
@Splat damn sleeping dogs 2 would be sweet…
Proper grown-up plot like GTA IV, with the fully realised open world of Red Dead II and the sheer playability of GTA V. Cheers.
@Dodoo yeah I'd add my name to the list of those who would love SD2, loved that game.
I'd say the ps5 port is ok.Its a ten year old game so in reality there wasn't gonna be a lot done to it so 60fps,1440p and very basic ray tracing is the bare minimum.Its AAA gaming at its worse that rockstar has sat back and milked online to death and will continue to do so.For one of my past favourite gaming franchises(4,vice city and San Andreas)I have very little hope for 6 and it's sad really!
The main focus will obviously be on the online component & how they can monetize it to it's full potential , with all the talent that has left rockstar I really don't have high expectations for the next GTA
@Marios-love-child Sony should reboot the getaway it could be a huge success if they did it right
It will. This will be a big step forward from GTA V and gamers are expecting the worst anyway.
I love gta's ability to portray a real life modern day city that you feel like a part of. As long as it keeps hold of that, then they can make whatever story they want for all I care. I'd definately buy 6.
Rockstar is almost an afterthought for me nowadays. If they go in the multiplayer/online direction I'll be less interested but I may be in the minority in 2022. We have to understand there is a younger generation of gamers who eat up the online stuff and that's ok. If they update the mechanics and gameplay then I'll perhaps take a look. There is some excellent writing in the gaming industry today so Rockstar have their work cut out but you can guarantee they'll have an unbeatable soundtrack.
Yay more multiplayer cause that's exactly what fans are asking for............
What it desperately needs to do is not suck and be stuffed to the gills with MTX. But, this is RockStar so who am I kidding?
it’s only gonna be GTA in name . look at saints row …
They can take their sweet time with GTA 6, I still need to play GTA 5 along with the hundreds of other games sitting in my backlog for 5 years.
What ever gta 6 is... it never gonna top gta5, and Rockstar knows it. It probably why they'll keep port GTA5 to new platforms, as a fall back game. GTA6 will still be s fantastic game tho.
I would love it if it was based in England again
If it's multiplayer orientated, I'm out. Absolutely zero interest in that.
@nessisonett
I get where you're coming from. But PlayStation has games for everyone, but not every game is for everyone.
I honestly think as a crime simulator of sorts. It should not have to hold back on anything. There should not be censorship to please anyone just remain legally compliant for its country of release. The whole GTA series is born out of controversy. Let us be adults and buy what we want. If I don't like something I don't buy it.
Or maybe a compromise would be to have some sort of filter for self censorship
Yay...I became a dad in March. I can play this with my son, once it's out...unless he doesn't live at home any longer. Fingers crossed.
I mean GTA V was pretty good at first, but it was never anything truly special (other than the world, I guess) The mid game is pretty bland and doesn't inspire. The setting up heist missions make me not want to replay it in full ever again other than maybe the odd bit for nostalgia.
I replayed GTA IV maybe 4 or 5 times in full though.
I imagine GTA VI will be even more spread out and more about the online stuff. But I'd obviously buy it because it's GTA :/
Now, if they had started a few years back and jumped on the narcos/drug running culture wave and made an international drug smuggling outfit the core aspect of the game, with playable character starting out smuggling drugs into the USA before getting stuck in a new city with nothing, then we would have had something to get excited about.
Tense smuggling scenarios with airports, airfields, trucks with hidden compartments, border patrols, FIB, all of that would be new. Air travel to multiple cities? That would be Rockstar at its open world genre defining best!
I just hope they improve the PS2-era character controls.
@Gloamin I can’t imagine Rockstar would intentionally go out of their way to offend anybody. But those people will be offended anyway. Comedy and Satire are lost on those people.
I really think red dead is way better than gta. Would love a sequel with jack or a prequel with blackwater end
@Uncharted2007 yep, almost exactly the same. Started losing interest with GTA IV, not to say I didn't like IV - I bought it twice (X360 and the complete edition on Steam later) but I feel like its transition to being more of a life sim (shut up Roman, I DON'T WANT TO GO BOWLING STOP CALLING) when I wanted to play GTA to escape endless social obligations and not take on someone else's was a limiting factor. In my opinion the glory days were Vice City/San Andreas, I loved modding Vice City on the PC (long live my appropriately-powerful FLCL Vespa 180SS) and going around SA with a friend on his PS2 and turning on the stupid cheats was so fun. If 6 is a recapturing of those glory days I'm in; if I have to keep answering calls saying GO BOWLING or switch between three protagonists when I just want to blow stuff up, steal cars and enact utter chaos with no real world consequences, I'll pass.
@gingerfrog I actually like a lot of the satire that GTA V contains, it accurately pokes fun at the hipster culture of the 2010s, social media, reality TV etc. All of which are ripe for making fun of. Having dodgy stereotypical trans women NPCs and making your character shout slurs at them is not satire.
Never played GTA Online and never will.. I’m an introvert in life and in games.. so truth be told, if it’s main focus is online then they’ve lost a loyal customer whos bought GTA:V 3 different times since it’s release.. I’d rather have Bully 2 or even a new Warriors game at this point
@nessisonett
Fair enough I appreciate your opinion. Personally I don't really find offence in anything and happy to laugh at myself and others in equal measures. How about the option to be able to self censor at the menu to taylor the game to your needs allowing others to have the experience they choose. I can't think of any direct examples but No More Russians in MW2 allowed people to bypass the things they felt weren't appropriate for themselves.
@IAM1982 there is zero chance it comes next year absolutely none same for 2024 there's not even been a teaser
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