GTA 5 DLC Was Cancelled Since GTA Online Made Too Much Money, Says Dev

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Rockstar Dev Explains Why Story DLC Was Cancelled!

Story Highlight
  • GTA 5 was launched in 2013, and Rockstar worked on various story expansions for the game.
  • However, expansions like the Trevor DLC were cancelled because GTA Online had become a cash cow.
  • The scrapped parts were then integrated into GTA Online.

Rockstar got incredible success from GTA 5, and the team planned to release various expansions to capitalize on this success. However, things changed when GTA Online became incredibly popular and started making tons of revenue for the company.

The studio then shifted gears and focused entirely on GTA Online. According to a former Rockstar developer, the Trevor story DLC was in the works, but it was cancelled to focus on the newfound success of live-service gaming.

Why it matters: Rockstar’s focus on GTA Online was worth it, but fans of single-player content were disappointed.

Joseph Rubino was the camera artist and cinematographer working on the Trevor expansion for GTA 5. He said that the development was going well and that almost half of the work on the DLC had been completed.

According to the developer, Rockstar has something special on its hand. However, after the release of GTA Online, Rockstar had found a massive cash cow.

When GTA Online came out, it was so much of a cash cow and people were loving it so much that it was to make an argument that a standalone DLC would out-compete that.

-Joseph Rubino

The artist said this was upsetting since he was working hard on the DLC. He suggested that Rockstar should’ve focused on both story DLC and GTA Online content.

Fortunately, all of his work didn’t go to waste since Rockstar integrated the Trevor story into future content for the online mode.

GTA 5 Online
GTA Online Was Rockstar’s Biggest Success In 2013

GTA Online’s live service has been one of gaming’s most successful. With more than 50 updates to date, this mode has evolved in numerous ways since 2013. Rockstar may now find it hard to offer a worthy successor with GTA 6.

Still, fans will remain upset that the mode led to the non-existent support for GTA 5’s incredible single-player mode. Apart from the Trevor DLC, various other DLCs were also scrapped.

According to a report, almost 8 story DLCs were cancelled by the team during this period.

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