What happens to GTA Online when GTA 6 comes out?
polygon.comGrand Theft Auto 6’s first trailer gives fans of the open-world crime franchise a peek at the first new GTA in more than a decade. As impressive as GTA 6 looks, it comes with immense expectations. Its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 5, is one of the biggest games of all time; Rockstar has sold more than 190 million copies of the game across three console generations, and following that massive success won’t be an easy task.
But Rockstar has another monumental challenge as GTA 6 creeps closer: delivering a successor, or companion, to Grand Theft Auto Online, the hugely successful multiplayer component built on GTA 5. Since launching in 2013, GTA Online is regularly played by millions of players — players who have invested hundreds of millions of hours (and dollars) in the game.
With GTA 6 slated for 2025, Rockstar has a difficult 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 of GTA 5. It also has a new location, a modern-day Vice City (and locations beyond), and a decade’s worth of technological advancements to capitalize on for a potential online expansion for GTA 6.
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Rockstar can’t simply move its entire GTA Online player base and tech to a new town 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 a follow-up. Companies are often left competing with themselves, as with the recently launched Payday 3, which is struggling to match the player numbers of the decade-old, hugely popular Payday 2. Developers Valve and Blizzard took a separate approach to sequelizing two of their
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