There’s plenty of speculation about whether GTA 6’s online version will kill GTA Online as we know it today. Some are concerned that all their hard work in GTA Online will be moot once the new version arrives.
If you’re concerned, I have good news and bad news. Obviously, Rockstar hasn’t announced anything officially just yet, but with all the information we have, we can make a few guesses that are likely to be quite accurate. So let’s dive in.
GTA Online Isn’t Going Anywhere
In a recent earnings call, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, confirmed that they had no plans to scrap support for GTA Online. He said that there was no reason to believe that regular content updates would be stopped in the near future.
This surprised me, as I fully expected them to pivot all their resources into GTA 6 Online and leave the current version of the game on life support. It’s a nice surprise, but when you’ve got a product making you millions a month, why would you scrap it? So, from official sources, we have a firm no here – GTA Online will stay up and even keep getting big updates every six months, at least for now.
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Will GTA Online Eventually Shut Down?
The next question to ask is, when will GTA Online of today go the way of the dodo? Well, this is speculation, but with many unable to afford current-gen systems, the player base is very likely to stay large enough to support the game and continue making profits.
Following that sort of logic, GTA Online will stay up for as long as console prices stay high. If, somewhere within the next two years, PS5 and Xbox X|S prices drop to where the majority of gamers can afford them, we could well see rapidly dwindling support for GTA Online.
This is a very unlikely scenario, however, as chip shortages continue to drive prices upwards.
Our Guess on When GTA Online Will End
With all we know right now, I’m willing to bet that GTA Online will stay open and playable for the next five years, at least. Maybe even ten. We’ve already discussed one major factor in this: console prices. But the other major factor is time sunk. A lot of GTA Online players have sunk many, many hours into building their empires. They’ve made friends, joined crews, and continue to enjoy the game and the regular content updates it receives.
With these two groups being glued to GTA Online, I don’t think we’ll see any sort of shutdown plans for a long time. But that is just a guess, and while Zelnick’s words are comforting, we can never predict their next move. There may well be an end-of-life plan in place for GTA Online already, and the company just isn’t ready to share it just yet.
What do you think, dear readers? Do you have a timeline in which you think Rockstar will be forced to kill OG GTA Online?
About the author
Kyle first stumbled upon GTA back in 1998 on a school computer, and has been hooked ever since. After missing Vice City, he has not missed another title in the GTA universe. He strongly believes that GTA 4 is still the best, and hopes that GTA 6 can finally dethrone that 18-year-old game.
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