A major story DLC for Rockstar Games’ open world action game, GTA V, was canceled as a result of its online component, GTA Online, becoming a “cash cow”, based on the latest report.
Speaking during an interview on the SanInPlay YouTube channel, Joe Robino, former senior camera artist and virtual cinematographer at Rockstar Games, talked about a “kick ass” standalone DLC project for GTA V that never saw the light of day. According to him, despite the project’s cancellation, some of its elements were integrated into GTA Online.
Robino elaborated on his role as a main editor and camera artist for the DLC and described the division of teams within Rockstar. A significant portion of the team moved to work on Red Dead Redemption 2, while him and others continued to work on GTA Online and the DLC. The decision to cancel the standalone DLC was made because GTA Online “was so much of a cash cow”, which made it hard to justify investing in a standalone project that might out-compete the ongoing success of the online component. He termed it as a business decision.
The former senior camera artist expressed his regret and frustration over the DLC’s cancellation, highlighting its potential and quality. In retrospect, Robino believes that it was possible to release the GTA V story DLC while also supporting GTA Online with fresh content. He mentioned that the project was around halfway through development, it and then the team had to put a pause on it due to GTA Online.
Recently, the voice actor behind one of GTA V’s central characters, Trevor Philips, had shared that Rockstar Games may have, at one point, planned to refactor its canceled title Agent into story DLC for GTA V. However, given the success of GTA Online, the company eventually decided to not go through with it. Read about it here.
