There’s an interesting new rumor about Rockstar’s plans for Grand Theft Auto 6, and Grand Theft Auto Online.
Grand Theft Auto Online originally launched with Grand Theft Auto V, as an open world version of Lost Santos that you could play in with other players. Its combination of live service elements and the community finding its own fun with it, such as NPC roleplaying, made it one of the most enduring live service and online communities in the industry today.
It was easy to take for granted that Grand Theft Auto Online would continue as is for Grand Theft Auto 6, but given that the newer game is set in a completely different location in Leonida, we actually didn’t know that for sure. Would Rockstar keep the online version of Los Santos online at the same time as this multiplayer open world version of Leonida? What if Rockstar made plans to connect the two locations together?
Tez2, a Rockstar dataminer, has added fuel to the fire with this recent post on GTAForums:
“Yep. In addition, R*/T2 already sell GTAO & RDO separately, but VI will be the first game where online is sold separately at launch, while story mode will be part of the full package that covers both. They will have to factor the online standalone price into the total cost. What portion of the base price will be the online’s price? And what would be the story mode upgrade price for those who’ve bought the online standalone?
T2 could benefit by pricing the online standalone lower, making it accessible for those who can’t afford the $70 or $80 price. Eventually, those players will upgrade to access the story mode, so that’s a win-win for them. This also opens an opportunity, some players may be eager to access the story mode but can’t afford the upgrade price too. That’s when they could slide in GTA+, and offer Game Pass-like access. They’ll net extra profits from players who keep subscribing instead of saving for the upgrade. Another win-win for T2.
The win for us is if the online standalone is priced as low as it can be and factored into the total cost, the game could be sold at the standard $70 instead of a higher price.”
Tez2 may be speculating in part of this statement, but we will assume that he found data or has sources that claim that Rockstar intends to sell Grand Theft Auto 6 and Grand Theft Auto Online separately. This opens things up to other potential questions as well. For example, if Rockstar plans to sell the two separately, what’s stopping them from releasing one before the other? Subsequently, while Tez2 speculates Rockstar could sell Grand Theft Auto Online for a lower price, what’s stopping them from offering it for free, in a similar arrangement as Call of Duty Warzone?
These decisions certainly raise interesting possibilities for gamers, that may or may not align with their preferences. But it also has huge implications for the industry. So we’ll see if Rockstar makes the right decisions that doesn’t just raise their business, but that of the industry as well.
