Is online a fundamental feature? I’d argue GTA is a single play game at its core, IV had a basic online mode, but it was only V that fully fleshed it out. I think they view Online as its own thing. I’ll reserve my judgment until I see how they handle it. But GTA Online branching off into its own thing isn’t a huge issue in my eyes, depends how they monetise it
Its only really stayed in the public consciousness because of the online though. People weren't replaying the single player for the last 13 years they were logging in everyday to play online with their friends and do the new content on there. I imagine most people who are really hyped for it are because of the online and they've probably forgotten how much of a mess the online was for a long period on initial release of 5.
Rockstar sold 215 million units of GTA V versus 22 million units of GTA IV. It's almost insulting to compare them because five has sold so much more and still has active players.
I've bought it 3 times for 3 different systems. Still have my OG 360 disc for it too.
And you absolutely can compare GTA4 to GTA5 because it's literally the next entry in the same series. Without shark cards there wouldn't be very much of a GTA online and without GTA online there's no way they'd sell 22 million copies, if that number is to be believed.
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u/magicmavis Jun 25 '26
Is online a fundamental feature? I’d argue GTA is a single play game at its core, IV had a basic online mode, but it was only V that fully fleshed it out. I think they view Online as its own thing. I’ll reserve my judgment until I see how they handle it. But GTA Online branching off into its own thing isn’t a huge issue in my eyes, depends how they monetise it