'We Were All Positive It Was Going to Fail': Rockstar Devs Thought GTA Online Would Flop
A former Rockstar Games developer has revealed that the team thought GTA Online was going to fail before it launched.
In an interview with Eldorado, ex-Rockstar Games developer Matt Freedman looked back on the success of GTA 5 and attributed a lot of it to GTA Online. He noted that a lot of investors seek a GTA Online-level success nowadays, but said it was treated as an "afterthought" during its initial development.
"When we were working on GTA Online, it was an afterthought," said Freedman. "We were all positive it was going to fail. Everyone thought this thing was going to fail. I remember QA testers coming up to me [and saying], 'We’ve got four hours of content for online mode. To do everything in GTA Online, it’s four hours,' or it was something like that. It was really short, and they’re like: ‘We are in so much trouble,' and we’re all sitting there going, 'Let’s see what happens. We’re going to do our best job anyways.' And then it took off, and then there was, to Rockstar’s credit, a fast follow with as much content as possible and [it] just kind of keep it going. And now it’s become this phenomenon."
It's unclear when the perception of GTA Online's potential began to shift at Rockstar. The studio did seem to have ambitions for it before launch, as it released a sizable trailer and media previews for the online mode before the game's release with plans for post-launch content like heists. Still, Freedman is right that the game was pretty light on content upon arrival. There wasn't a ton to do beyond the typical sandbox mayhem and the most exciting content in the game didn't arrive until years later, including its heists update.
Still, Rockstar worked hard to support it, even if its success did seem to catch the company off-guard. Rockstar Games had plans for GTA 5 single player DLC, which was scrapped after GTA Online took off and required more resources. It also reportedly wasn't feasible to do both while also developing Red Dead Redemption 2, so Rockstar leaned into GTA Online.
It's also hard to imagine that the studio anticipated GTA Online running for as long as it has. 13 years later, GTA Online is still getting massive updates and despite GTA 6's release on the horizon, the team may well keep supporting it while it keeps being profitable. GTA 6 will be a "single player experience" when it launches and Rockstar has been cagey about its plans for online beyond that. It also just announced its official nopixel RP server for the PC version of GTA 5, which shows a pretty high level of commitment.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.