It has been notable that Rockstar and Take-Two have not yet mentioned the launch of a new Grand Theft Auto Online to coincide with GTA 6 coming out in November of this year. And now, according to the usually very reliable Jason Schreier of Bloomberg, that won’t be changing in the near future.
In the latest video on his personal YouTube channel, Schreier discusses having an opportunity to interview Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick about GTA 6. Before he launches into his brief chat with Strauss Zelnick, he drops an interesting tidbit of information: Rockstar and Take-Two aren’t planning on discussing GTA Online “anytime soon.”
Here’s Schreier’s exact quote, which runs from 5:50-6:15 in his video.
“Take 2 is only talking about GTA 6 in terms of the single player portion… and not GTA Online. They have not talked at all and they are not planning to talk anytime soon about what the new GTA Online will look like…”
Now, Schreier does not attribute this to Strauss Zelnick, nor does he mention where the information comes from. However, Schreier is a man who knows a great many things about the industry, and he’s very confident in his assertion, which to me indicates that he’s heard this information from somewhere very reliable. He doesn’t throw it out as a possibility, or a guess or even his own opinion – he states it like it’s fact.
It’s not surprising, really, though, because Rockstar have been very careful to describe GTA 6 as a “single player experience.”
And, of course, Schreier’s words could mean quite a lot. The original GTA Online launched a few weeks after the main game dropped, so perhaps Rockstar is planning something similar so that the single player portion can get time to sell a few billion copies and be enjoyed by everyone before the new online mode begins to absorb every minute of everyone’s free time. Or maybe GTA Online isn’t to be replaced, just upgraded, or left exactly as it is.
We don’t know. And I guess we aren’t going to know for a little while.
But we will get an extended look at GTA 6 later this month when it appears on Netflix, and then YouTube 6 hours later. Which is a weird sentence to type.