Fans eagerly awaited a story DLC for Grand Theft Auto V since many eagerly look forward to an extended and engaging tale from Rockstar Games that they are famous for.
Yet, the massive success of GTA Online in a relatively short while drastically changed Rockstar’s priorities, thus ending the story DLC.
This revelation which was quite a surprise to many people was revealed by Joe Robino a former senior camera artist and virtual cinematographer at Rockstar.
GTA V Story DLC Axed: Victim of GTA Online’s Meteoric Rise
Inside the Scrapped Project
Joe Robino discusses the canceled DLC on the SanInPlay YouTube channel. As for Robino, DLC was an interesting concept of a grand standalone, which, in his opinion, was incredibly promising.
He contributed to this project as a key editor as well as a camera artist. Nonetheless, it was never completed and never amounted to the expectations that were built around it.
This decision was strongly preconditioned by internal resource availability in Rockstar. The development team was redistributed, and a large portion of it was transferred to work on Red Dead Redemption 2.
This left Robino as well as a few other staff to cater both the maintenance of GTA Online while they are also working on the story DLC.
The Double-Edged Sword of GTA Online’s Success
This massive success was a two-sided blade for GTA Online. GTA Online was highly lucrative to Rockstar turning more or less into a money spinner that went on to provide Rockstar’s endless source of income via microtransactions.
The constant flow of money for the services provided made it difficult to simulate the dramatic investment of a standalone story DLC.
The money that could be made from the DLC just did not compare to the cash-making machine that GTA Online represented. This financial reality was held to largely favor the abandoning of the DLC project by Rockstar.
Image Credits: GTADisappointment and Speculations
To their disappointment, Joe Robino said a lot concerning Rockstar’s decision. He focused on the possibilities of using the DLC and the work done on this instrument by the team.
Mr. Robin measured that if Rockstar had better planning, then the company could have been in a position to release the story DLC and continue supporting GTA Online through constant updates.
The quote spoke volumes of the internal dynamics in Rockstar and the kind of decisions that were made at the time.
Opinions about the canceled DLC were further fueled by the words of the voice actor of Trevor Philips, Steven Ogg.
Ogg was not ruling out the possibility of Rockstar having thought about including aspects from the game that was scheduled for production known as “Agent” in the GTA V story DLC. However, because of the success of GTA Online, such proposals were never to be realized.
Blending Creativity and Profitability
The cancellation of the GTA V story DLC is further proof that the art struggle is very much alive in the medium that has quickly become one of the entertainment world’s most powerful forces.
The criticism is that fans desire more from the game’s story mode while GTA Online breaks new ground demonstrating that online monetization points are central to contemporary videogame business models.
Yet this has become a trait of the gaming industry, and Rockstar was no exception: choosing to develop GTA online instead of the story DLC demonstrates that today the financial factor plays a significant role in determining crucial decisions, even if it brings negative consequences.
Although it was sad that the event was canceled by many, it also brought awareness of the setting up of a highly lucrative business through models of online gambling.
About the Author(102 Articles Published)
Jeeva Shanmugam is a highly skilled content writer with expertise in writing articles, blogs, and other forms of content on various Esports-related topics.
