GTA 6: GTA 5 Online Success Will Not Delay Release

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The overwhelming success of GTA 5 online has ensured that there is no pressure on Rockstar to rush out GTA 6. The online portion of the latest GTA adventure has already raked in over $500 million in profits, and this has ensured that the development process for GTA 6 can be slowed down considerably.

GTA Online success

It has been a massive plus point for Rockstar to discover this new rich seam of revenue, and one that would certainly have been appreciated in previous GTA titles. It is noticeable that as a result of the success of GTA Online, Rockstar has refrained from developing any DLC single-player content since GTA 5 was released. We have seen no equivalent of The Last and the Damned or The Ballad of Gay Tony in the GTA 5 generation.

And with Rockstar still making vast amounts of money from the existing GTA 5 title, it has been speculated in some quarters that GTA 6 could ultimately be delayed. After all, one of the most obvious motivations for this next generation GTA title is the ever important commercial imperative. With this imperative somewhat removed, the opportunity is there for Rockstar to take its own sweet time with what will be the biggest video game of all time when it is released.

Development underway

It has also been suggested that a significant portion of the Rockstar staff is currently working on the GTA 5 online title, and that this means that the company will be pressed in terms of resources for developing GTA 6 in the foreseeable future. But reports are now beginning to multiply which suggest that GTA 6 is in hand, and could appear earlier than some of the more pessimistic predictions.

Reports in the last couple of days have indicated that Rockstar is already working on GTA 6, as elsewhere it has been reported that the map for the game is already under development. The expectation for GTA 6 will be almost unparalleled in any previous video game title, particularly after the monumental success of GTA 5. Arguably this will be the biggest media title in history, as the amount of revenue that GTA 6 is set to generate will dwarf almost any other release in any other genre.

GTA 6 – Bin Laden Link

Aside from the development of the game, some controversial suggestions for the forthcoming GTA 6 game are already being reported. In particular, it has emerged earlier this week that Osama bin Laden could be featured as a character in the upcoming game. It is even suggested that the gameplay may involve players fighting against the infamous leader of al-Qaeda, along with a number of the notorious allies of the terrorist organisation.

Of course, there has been absolutely no official confirmation of anything relating to GTA 6 thus far, so this can be considered very much a rumor at the time of writing. And while there are extremely strong and obvious reasons to believe that this will turn out to be a complete red herring, it is also not beyond the realm of possibility considering the Rockstar track record.

Although the developer occasionally likes to deny its reputation for deliberately courting controversy, no one who is remotely objective would fail to notice this aspect of Rockstar. The GTA series in itself has proven to be one of the most contentious in the history of video games…and yet it is by no means the most controversial title that Rockstar has released.

Bully and Manhunt

Bully and Manhunt both created vast amounts of publicity and column inches for Rockstar in the past, even though there was nothing particularly controversial about the content of the former. Indeed, Bully remains an extremely popular and well regarded game, and there are continual whispers that Rockstar will eventually produce a sequel to be played on the PlayStation 4.

Manhunt was rather more contentious, with the gameplay involved in this title extremely dark and violent. It certainly seemed that Rockstar was deliberately provoking its critics with this particular game, and it remains one of the most frequently banned video games across the planet. Ironically, Rockstar has recently made both of these titles available on the PlayStation 4, indicating that the Bully and Manhunt stories may not be over just yet.

But this tendency to thumb its nose at its critics means that Rockstar could conceivably consider something as obviously inflammatory as including bin Laden in a video game. On the other hand, the specter of 9/11 has been treated respectfully by Rockstar in the past. Several changes were made to the first 3D title in the series, GTA 3, following the September 11 terrorist attacks, while aircraft where famously excluded from GTA 4 in order to ensure that gamers couldn’t recreate the Twin Towers attacks in a virtual recreation of New York.

So on balance, it still seems unlikely that Rockstar will include bin Laden in GTA 6, but it is the sort of move that the maverick software house could at least consider.

Rockstar rumors

Considering the lack of information regarding GTA 6, coupled with the fact that it will be the most anticipated video game over, and it was inevitable that numerous rumors would be circulated on the Internet regarding this Rockstar game. One of the most prominent over the last couple of weeks is that Rockstar will relocate GTA 6 to Tokyo; setting a GTA title outside of the United States for the first time. This would be another surprise, but it could be that Rockstar feels the need to really change things up in the GTA series, in order to keep things fresh and engaging.

Other rumors have focused on some of the celebrities apparently signed up to appear in the game, including Eva Mendes, virtual reality capabilities that will apparently be included in the game, and the suggestion that it will be possible to teleport around the massive GTA 6 map in order to make travelling less time-consuming.

Undoubtedly the buildup to GTA 6 – which could take as much as four years, but will be at least two years in development – will be intriguing. And with Rockstar now apparently working on the game, hopefully some solid information will be made available sooner rather than later.

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