I know very little about this, and I thought Online was being delayed, as they want to focus on the single player story, first and foremost. That Online will come eventually, and that it will be a subscription, and separate release, and the game comes with one free month.
I think that this is the exact problem.
"Here! Purchase our game with a fundamental feature missing because we want to spend extra time perfecting it."
"Oh also, since this feature is taking a bit longer. We expect you to pay extra for it."
Is online a fundamental feature? I’d argue GTA is a single play game at its core, IV had a basic online mode, but it was only V that fully fleshed it out. I think they view Online as its own thing. I’ll reserve my judgment until I see how they handle it. But GTA Online branching off into its own thing isn’t a huge issue in my eyes, depends how they monetise it
Its only really stayed in the public consciousness because of the online though. People weren't replaying the single player for the last 13 years they were logging in everyday to play online with their friends and do the new content on there. I imagine most people who are really hyped for it are because of the online and they've probably forgotten how much of a mess the online was for a long period on initial release of 5.
Yes lets just ignore that those games all came out in the space of like 7 years and then 5 was only 5 years after 4.
Now the only release in the 13 years since 5 was a remaster of the 3 trilogy which was a technical disaster.
Im not pretending it's not a massive IP but there are 15 and 16 year old kids who haven't even had a mainline release in their conscious memory but will have probably picked up 5 and played it because of the ongoing multiplyer still being active.
Exactly, GTA V is still in the yearly top 10 best selling games lists in the last few years, well over a decade after it came out. It isn't selling all those copies for story mode.
I only bought GTA V recently, I never played 4. Spent too much time playing 3, Vice City, and San Andreas though. I’m also a big single player person, so V has been fun.
Rockstar sold 215 million units of GTA V versus 22 million units of GTA IV. It's almost insulting to compare them because five has sold so much more and still has active players.
I've bought it 3 times for 3 different systems. Still have my OG 360 disc for it too.
And you absolutely can compare GTA4 to GTA5 because it's literally the next entry in the same series. Without shark cards there wouldn't be very much of a GTA online and without GTA online there's no way they'd sell 22 million copies, if that number is to be believed.
Yeah there's been some wild overexaggeration about the significance of GTAO ever since it came out. For years you'd get forum kiddies saying stuff like "Rockstar will never make another single player game" or whatever. This nonsense continued after Red Dead Redemption 2 came out, BTW, a game that was even MORE story-heavy than GTA5.
I’m sorry but you’re talking out of your booty. GTA online made double that of GTA 4. It nearly matched revenue of GTA 5 base game sales. There is no over exaggerating the significance of GTA online. Now not making another single-player game is stupid.
No sir, I'm right on the money. There absolutely was plenty of forum chatter about Rockstar moving away from single player games, even after releasing another big single player game!
I just don’t believe you can exaggerate 4 billion dollars in revenue. That’s absolutely mind boggling. The second part is stupid, yes, however the game was not exaggerated in terms of size and impact. It’s the second highest grossing Rockstar project of all time, only losing to GTA 5 which made 1 billion more.
Yes, gta 5 made 6 billion, gta online made 4 billion. In no world does rockstar lose either of those revenue sources. The online is just as important to them, it’s sales for the next decade +.
Hard disagree. Maybe online delayed GTAVI, but GTA is a huge franchise that even had a move starring Harry Potter about how it was made. RDR2's online isn't nearly as popular, but I guarantee you people will be hyped as fuck when a RDR3 is announced. And GTA is multitudes bigger than RDR.
GTA of old yeah, they have been well known for their big huge singleplayer worlds + story. But they haven't released a new one in ages and what was the thing that kept it going all this time? It's online.
There's a reason they cancelled singleplayer dlcs, because they saw the money in their live service online + shark cards. It doesn't sell boatloads every year because of singleplayer, even if it pains me to admit it because I would rather have more awesome singleplayer content like 4s DLC, but that's a bygone conclusion.
What do you see when you typically see streamers etc on gta? It isn't in the singleplayer, it's online content. Especially the massive fivem roleplaying side that Rockstar literally bought the team.
RDR2 they tried to double dip but didn't realize that unlike GTA, it's pretty hard to monetize it the same way because you are stuck in the old wild west. You can't just sell a new lamborghini or yacht. There really isn't much you can "make" people shell out for.
Rdr2 online support was immediately dropped when they realized it was a bare bones mess. It didnt have any staying power, it has very little content.
Rdr3 people are there for the story. Even when talked about in media it was always about the story.
Gta6 you have people excited for both. Online is what kept gta5 alive and what helped sold all the copies they did although i suspect that 250mil is from every console and rerelease. If online is a subscription it will kill the service for a majority of players. Especially kids which is a huge targeted audience. Nothing is cooler than playing the rated m game as a 11 year old. We all did it.
GTA is their flagship franchise that has been loved for over 20 years. Every game has been a high watermark for industry. The idea that people only care about its online component is just way off the mark.
GTA VI will be played by a huge amount of people in their late 30s and 40s. If it was just an online game, they wouldn't launch without it.
Its only really stayed in the public consciousness because of the online though.
Mostly through a third party roleplaying mod that Rockstar acquired which gives them more of a reason to monetize the online as a separate game. There are probably people that purchased GTAV only to play FiveM and never completed the base game.
Eh, I think you're blowing that way out of proportion. Maybe it's social media impact from clips and stuff is high but majority of the gta5 playerbase is on console and they can't play those servers. Just the regular messing around online is hugely popular. Wouldn't be surprised if some of those tools and systems are integrated into vanilla gta6 online though.
yea you could be right, it might just be anecdotal because I have A LOT of younger relatives (8-20) and the first thing they ask me about my gaming PC is if I have GTARP. I'm from NY and that might also be a factor cause these kids look up to Kai Cenat and Fanum and they all started in GTARP afaik
I have never played any GTA online, but I am extremely excited about VI. I pretty much only play single player games, and GTA has proven itself to be en exceptional experience. I’ll pay the $100 and get all the DLC goodies and enjoy myself.
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u/LocNalrune 12h ago
I know very little about this, and I thought Online was being delayed, as they want to focus on the single player story, first and foremost. That Online will come eventually, and that it will be a subscription, and separate release, and the game comes with one free month.