What happens to GTA Online when GTA 6 comes out?

Grand Theft Auto6The game's first trailer gives fans of the open-world crime franchise a taste of the first new GTA in over a decade. As impressive as GTA6 it seems like it comes with huge expectations. His predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 5, is one of the greatest games of all time; Rockstar has sold more than 190 million copies of the game across three console generations, and following that massive success will be no easy task.

But Rockstar has another monumental challenge GTA6 is creeping closer: the delivery of a successor, or companion Grand Theft Auto Onlinethe hugely successful multiplayer component that was built upon GTA 5. Since its launch in 2013 GTA Online is played regularly by millions of players – players who have invested hundreds of millions of hours (and dollars) into the game.

Of GTA6 scheduled for 2025, Rockstar has a tough needle to thread. It has millions of loyal fans who will continue to play GTA Online for years to come, plus a new game to support, hopefully with the same longevity and vitality as GTA 5. It also has a new location, a modern Vice City (and locations beyond) and a decade of technological advancements to capitalize on for a potential online expansion for GTA6.

Rockstar can't just move the entire device GTA Online player base and technology to a new city and a new game and ask everyone to start over. Other developers have tried (and stumbled) to transition their loyal communities from one successful game to the next. Companies often have to compete with themselves, as with the recently launched companies Payday 3which is struggling to match the player numbers of the ten-year-old, hugely popular player Payday 2. Developers Valve and Blizzard took a different approach to sequels to two of their popular games: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive And Overwatcheffectively replacing them with Counterattack 2 And Overwatch 2 but with mixed results. Rockstar competed with itself with the launch of Red Dead Online in 2018, with GTA Online be the clear victor. (Last year, the studio announced it was continuing the development of RDO deploy resources GTA6.)

Rockstar doesn't have the luxury of replacing Grand Theft Auto Online with a direct sequel. Too many players would be left behind. But the game maker could try something completely different. The developer's purchase of GTA role-playing mod maker Cfx.re, the team that makes FiveM and RedM, could be a sign of its approach to bringing the online side of GTA6. These mods allow players to take on virtually any role in the worlds of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead, making them not only the masters of criminal organizations and famous bandits, but also taxi drivers, gang members and horse ranchers.

Rockstar could also take a more subscription-based approach; its GTA Plus subscription, launching in 2022, appears to have been quite successful in bringing in consistent monthly revenue for the company.

What exactly Rockstar plans to do with it GTA Online and multiplayer integration for GTA6 is currently almost completely opaque. Rockstar's debut trailer for 6 focuses largely on the main characters and setting of the next Grand Theft Auto game, and the company is known for being a black box of pre-release information. (Polygon reached out to Rockstar for comment on the future of GTA Online and will update when the company responds.) Even Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has said nothing substantive about the future of Grand Theft Auto Onlinemerely commenting on the outstanding recurring revenue Rockstar was bringing in and acknowledging the tough act to follow GTA 5 And GTA Online.

“I think this is a challenge that the folks at Rockstar face every time a new version of Grand Theft Auto comes out,” Zelnick said during a podcast appearance earlier this year. “On the one hand, it has to be something you've never seen before, and it has to reflect the feeling we have about Grand Theft Auto, and that's a big challenge for the team.”