A former Rockstar developer has mentioned the corporate canceled a standalone Grand Theft Auto 5 story DLC as a result of GTA On-line emerged as a “money cow” quickly after launch.
Joe Robino, who was a senior digital camera 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.
“Quite a lot of the workforce went to do Purple Lifeless Redemption 2 straight away and I took on this different mission 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 many most important editors, digital camera artists, and on-stage stuff. We break 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 an important a part of.
“After which a number of the workforce overlapped and went to RDR2 early on, after which we simply sort of did this [flipped motion], as a result of when that sport obtained shelved, we spent a lot cash… quite 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 onerous 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 determination they made. I used to be a little bit upset about that.
“That truly was quite a lot of the rationale for me being a little bit 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.”
IGN has requested Rockstar for remark.
Followers have had snippets of details about GTA 5’s fabled story DLC through the years. Certainly, Steven Ogg has spoken about it and what it might have concerned. “Trevor was going to be undercover, he was working with the feds,” Ogg has mentioned. “We did shoot a few of that stuff with ‘James Bond Trevor’, the place he’s nonetheless sort of a f**k-up, however he’s doing his greatest. Then it simply disappeared and so they 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 On-line, as Robino says. In 2018, Rockstar lastly unveiled GTA On-line’s Doomsday Heist missions alongside the Thruster, a jetpack that is nonetheless unique to the multiplayer mode to at the present time.
Rockstar is now targeted on getting GTA 6 prepared for its fall 2025 launch window. There are a selection of questions followers have of Rockstar’s plans, together with whether or not GTA 6 will, in contrast to GTA 5, obtain story DLC. And what occurs to the present model of GTA On-line when GTA 6 inevitably introduces its personal model?
In the meantime, in the identical interview, Robino mentioned the well-documented crunch and secrecy Rockstar workers endured whereas engaged on GTA 5 and Purple Lifeless Redemption 2. “We obtained in all probability midway via it [the GTA5 story DLC], and we put a pause on it,” he mentioned. “I used to be additionally doing GTA On-line at the moment, and I used to be additionally doing RDR2. All of us had been. We labored so much, man. For six or seven years, I used to be working virtually twelve months a yr with our workforce.”
For years, Rockstar had a infamous repute inside the online game business for brutal crunch within the making of Grand Theft Auto and Purple Lifeless video games. Nonetheless, following the discharge of Purple Lifeless Redemption 2 in 2018 and the surprising tales concerning the human price of its improvement, media experiences instructed adjustments had been made to the corporate’s tradition to keep away from the identical factor occurring through 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.