A former Rockstar developer has stated the corporate canceled a standalone Grand Theft Auto 5 story DLC as a result of GTA Online 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.
“Numerous the staff went to do Red Dead Redemption 2 immediately 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 fundamental editors, digital camera artists, and on-stage stuff. We break up our groups into two. I stayed on GTA Online after which this DLC, which Steven Ogg [the actor who played Trevor Philips] was a vital a part of.
“And then a few of the staff overlapped and went to RDR2 early on, after which we simply form of did this [flipped motion], as a result of when that recreation acquired shelved, we spent a lot cash… numerous that stuff although did find yourself making it I imagine into later iterations of GTA Online, I believe. So it’s not like they wasted it.
“It was actually actually good. But when GTA Online got here out it was a lot of a money cow and folks have been loving it a lot that it was laborious to make an argument {that a} standalone DLC would outcompete that. I believe trying again now you would most likely do each. But that was a enterprise choice they made. I used to be a bit of upset about that.
“That really was numerous the explanation for me being a bit of bitter at the moment. Because 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.
Fans have had snippets of details about GTA 5’s fabled story DLC over time. Indeed, 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 stated. “We did shoot a few of that stuff with ‘James Bond Trevor’, the place he’s nonetheless form of a f**k-up, however he’s doing his finest. Then it simply disappeared they usually 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 Online, as Robino says. In 2018, Rockstar lastly unveiled GTA Online’s Doomsday Heist missions alongside the Thruster, a jetpack that is nonetheless unique to the multiplayer mode to this present day.
Rockstar is now centered on getting GTA 6 prepared for its fall 2025 launch window. There are quite a few 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 Online when GTA 6 inevitably introduces its personal model?
Meanwhile, in the identical interview, Robino mentioned the well-documented crunch and secrecy Rockstar employees endured whereas engaged on GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. “We acquired most likely midway via it [the GTA5 story DLC], and we put a pause on it,” he stated. “I used to be additionally doing GTA Online at the moment, and I used to be additionally doing RDR2. We all have been. We labored lots, man. For six or seven years, I used to be working nearly twelve months a yr with our staff.”
For years, Rockstar had a infamous fame inside the online game trade for brutal crunch within the making of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead video games. However, following the discharge of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018 and the shocking stories about the human cost of its development, media studies recommended modifications have been made to the corporate’s tradition to keep away from the identical factor occurring through the growth of GTA 6.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
