GTA 6 Hardly Will Hit PS4 and Xbox One

The world of GTA is constantly expanding, just like the universe. The latest updates for GTA Online featured Casino Update, a multiplayer feature that seems more than just a DLC. It changes the game, and this change seems too much to develop within the six-year-old GTA V.

This makes the dream of fans more probable to come true. GTA VI certainly will be the next big thing in this criminal saga. But there is something bitter in this sweet thought. Rockstar Games will probably schedule the sixth installment for the next generation of consoles. And this means that neither Xbox One nor PlayStation 4 will receive it.

A Little Bit of History

Being among the most successful games of all time, GTA V was first released for consoles and kept PC players waiting for over a year. It was the console owners’ time to laugh. But now it’s time for them to consider new expenses because the current console generation will probably be ignored by developers.

So it has been all the way with Rockstar Games: any new installment of the cult series came to the next generation of consoles. This time the lucky list probably will include PS5, Xbox Scarlett and Google Stadia. The lifecycle of PS4 and Xbox One is obviously coming to the end.

The current GTA installment, though, became an exception. It was both released for seventh and eighth (the current) console generations, though its release for PS3 and Xbox 360 never received key updates.

These facts make common sense hesitate between two versions of future events. Either GTA VI will be released for the current generation consoles but abandoned later. Or Rockstar Games will skip Generation 8 completely, preparing the game for the future. The latter suggestion seems to make more sense, because GTA V of 2019 and GTA V of 2013 are two completely different games, due to an incredible number of DLC and new features like GTA Online.

The Pieces Fit

But the most important thing we need to know about GTA Casino Online is that it wasn’t initially planned like this. The idea of an in-game online casino grew from a planned single-player update that was finally ditched, with the best fragments of it migrating to online updates.

This DLC has been rumored about a lot, but finally, it was canceled. The cancellation of it, though, may have a deeper meaning. As Tez2 and Yan2295 confirmed, there was more about these decisions. The thing is that the latest updates of GTA Online were based on the ideas planned for the single-player DLC. And now Rockstar seems completely out of them.

For example, Trevor’s story after the main events included robbing a casino – the casino that we know now from GTA Online. Seeing the success of an online version, Rockstar decided to support it at the expense of a single-player.

Game Over, Long Live the Game?

If the online updates really were based on the canceled SP DLC, and now Rockstar has used all of them, it means that the developer will pay less attention (if any) to update the current game.

Not that it’s hopelessly old. Remember that another megahit, The Sims 4, still receives updates, with more and more extras. And, of course, there will be technical updates and bugfixes. But if Take-Two, the actual owner of Rockstar Games, plans to make another installment, the time is now that the potential of original ideas for further milking GTA V is almost exhausted.

Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two, indirectly confirms that. Recently he mentioned that the company plans some sequels of its biggest franchises. Definitely, these “biggest franchises” must include GTA, and if the sequel isn’t planned now, it should be planned soon, to cover the lifecycle of new generation consoles right from the start.