GTA Online Dev Teases New Updates As Game Approaches 10th Anniversary

Believe it or not, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The game continues to sell millions of copies every few months, and its multiplayer mode--GTA Online--gets updates on a weekly basis. Rockstar North design director Scott Butchard has reflected on GTA Online's 10th anniversary this year, saying the team never imagined what the game would become.

"When we started out, I don't think we could have ever dreamed we'd still be going 10 years on. The success of GTA Online is nothing we ever expected," Butchard told GamesRadar.

While other live-service games have come and gone, GTA Online has stayed strong. Lead designer Chris Bell said part of what has made GTA Online so enduringly popular is how it has content that appeals to a wide audience. It's an ongoing development challenge to meet this demand.

"With there being such a large and varied amount of experiences in GTA Online at this point, there is always that challenge of trying to keep things fresh that's going to appeal both to our veteran audience and any new players that may be playing it as their first bit of gameplay beyond the tutorial," Bell said.

Looking ahead, many are wondering what will become of GTA Online when Grand Theft Auto 6 releases. We don't know, and the Rockstar developers didn't comment on this, of course, but it's safe to assume the next GTA game will have an online element to it considering how massively successful GTA Online has been and continues to be. For now, Butchard said fans can expect additional updates and new features for for the current version of GTA Online.

"We've got a bunch of ideas in the works right now, all the way up until the holidays at the end of the year, so please stay tuned!" the developer said.

GTA Online launched in October 2013, following the base game's release in September of that year. A standalone version of GTA Online was released in 2022, priced at $20.

As mentioned, Rockstar is now developing GTA 6, or whatever the next entry is called, and a massive leak revealed images, video footage, and tons of apparent information about the game.