Will GTA 6 have online, and will it be cross-play? Rumours explained
Though Vice City is home to multiple players, will GTA 6 actually have multiplayer?
As revealed in the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer, the GTA 6 map is huge and filled to the brim, making it ripe for hilarious multiplayer antics - so today we’ll be trying to answer the questions, "Will GTA 6 have online, and will it be cross-play?"
GTA 6 Online might be fairly obvious, but it’s definitely more nuanced than you'd expect, as Max Borman for Game Rant cites that "players who have invested so much in GTA Online may be hesitant to start from scratch".
As we have seen recently with Counter-Strike 2 succeeding Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a direct replacement is no easy task, even though GTA 6 graphics are better than GTA 5's.
Cross-play also poses another hurdle, and we’ll look to the past to see what the future may hold in this regard.
GTA 6 Online isn’t the only mystery, though, as we only know about one GTA 6 protagonist, Lucia, and a potential hidden meaning in the trailer song relating to her. We've also looked at if and when GTA 6 will release on PC.
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Hopefully, the mystery surrounding the GTA 6 price won’t turn out to be ruinous for wallets worldwide.
Though we’ve got until 2025 to find out, read on and we’ll do our best to answer your burning questions!
Will GTA 6 have an online mode?
GTA 6 will undoubtedly have an online mode.
GTA Online was a bit of a slow burner at launch, with many decrying the lack of additional Heists - but that is ancient history now, as it’s a force to be reckoned with.
GTA Online is essentially a money printer for Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two Interactive, as many people still play GTA Online - and it receives regular updates with new content.
GTA 6 may well end up being the most expensive game ever made, and they will want to recoup the costs and generate a tidy profit.
Given how many views the first trailer has garnered on YouTube already, it’s probably likely the developers will more than break even.
But as Game Rant points out, players will probably not want to start out at ground zero, so whether or not GTA Online is somehow assimilated into GTA 6 Online or sees continued support post GTA 6 remains to be seen.
No matter what happens with GTA 6 Online, hopefully we’ll see the introduction of co-op. If there are (at least) two playable characters, then it could provide ample opportunity for such a mode.
Will GTA 6 be cross-play?
This one we’re not entirely sure about, as GTA 5 doesn’t have cross-play. In the console space, it would make a lot of sense, as combining the player counts will give GTA 6 and GTA 6 Online much longer legs - as any drop in players won’t be as pronounced.
Rockstar Games and Take-Two do not particularly take kind to the PC platform, however, and regularly take down mods.
The open nature of PC means it’s easier for users to go in and fiddle with things such as hacks, so they may want to keep these player bases separate.
No PC version has been announced as of yet, either, and Rockstar games traditionally come to the platform further down the road.
There’s also the age-old conundrum of PC players having an advantage with more precise controls courtesy of the mouse. Console players might not want to share the game in any competitive capacity due to this.
With that said, it remains to be seen, so do make sure you keep an eye on RadioTimes.com to get all the latest in gaming news.
What can we glean from GTA 5?
As we said earlier, GTA 5 doesn’t have cross-play, and Rockstar has never made any intention to do so given how healthy the player count has been even 10 years on.
There have been multiple versions of GTA 5 across three different console generations and the PC. The PC version doesn’t even have access to ray-tracing, which only came to PS5 and Xbox Series X.
These different versions would no doubt be a nightmare to get talking to one another, so Rockstar may well opt to continue down the same path if they intend to (they absolutely will) release versions on future consoles.
The difference with GTA 5 is that the originals were released on PS3 and Xbox 360, which are architecturally very different from PCs and the previous and current generations of consoles.
If Sony and Microsoft continue with much more PC-like hardware, cross-play could be something far more attainable between generations.
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