It’s been seven long years since Grand Theft Auto V was released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Rockstar Games’ classic remains a hugely popular title, with its Grand Theft Auto Online service still one of the world’s most played online games and a reliable money-spinner for the company. Since its release, we’ve had the awesome Red Dead Redemption 2, but fans have been clamoring for official info on Grand Theft Auto 6 for years now.
Of course, getting information out of Rockstar is like getting blood from a stone, but today we have our first smidgen of confirmed intel that hints at the structure of the game and how it’s being developed. The story comes courtesy of Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, one of the most reliable journalists covering the gaming industry, and his report indicates that the ‘crunch’ at Rockstar, in which employees are pushed to breaking point to get titles out of the door, is getting better.
Part of that is due to the plans for Grand Theft Auto 6, which sounds like it’s going to be a departure from previous entries. Schreier describes the sequel as starting out with a “moderately sized release” (which, by Rockstar’s standards, would still be a large game). Over time, that base will then be expanded with regular content updates, with the plan being that the staggered release will reduce pressure on their employees.
This indicates that Grand Theft Auto 6 will move to the kind of season-based setup we see in big hitters like Fortnite. While there’s no confirmation as to whether this new content will be for single or multiplayer, the latter is where the money is. However, as both Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online already put out new content, it suggests that single player will now be treated the same way.
Sadly, though, there’s a catch to all this. Schreier says that the game is “still early in development,” so it looks like we have quite a wait yet before getting back into Grand Theft Auto.