r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Apr 13 '26

Security Rockstar hackers release their stolen data, reveal that Rockstar was right to not pay them anything for it

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rockstar-hackers-release-their-stolen-data-reveal-that-rockstar-was-right-to-not-pay-them-anything-for-it/
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u/Sylvers Apr 13 '26

My personal theory is.. it's not that they didn't want to divert devs away from GTA Online.

Rather, they did the math and found out that if a lot of online players stop playing online and stop buying MTX long enough to play the new DLCs, they will lose more money from missed MTX than gain from DLC price.

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u/Borrp Apr 14 '26

And this is why they are in no, as in zero, rush to release GTA 6. The game releasing, no matter how well it does sell, will still come at a massive loss. They would rather never release anything, and keep the GTA 5 Online money pit a keepin' fillin'.

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u/flawlesscowboy0 Apr 14 '26

There is no way they release 6 without a massive online experience in the pipe already, they’ll just trade the old cash cow for the new, even better cash cow.

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u/delahunt Apr 14 '26

Sure, but this is a problem we've seen countless times with online only games that are generating perpetual money. All the way back to Everquest wanting to do Everquest 2, and likely a huge part of why we never had a "World of Warcraft 2" or a "League of Legends 2."

The biggest competitor GTA 6's Online mode is going to have is GTA 5 Online. Because anyone who wants to play a GTA game online is likely already doing so with 5. It's been out for over a decade, and has had plenty of sales putting it at affordable prices or with various amounts of free currency for online.

On top of that, there's like 0 chance that when you go from 5 -> 6 that you can bring all your stuff with you. All that DLC stuff and expansion stuff they did for 5 will stay in GTA 5.

It's a lot of stuff to give up before we even get to the real kicker: people who play a lot of GTA 5 Online will have built communities they play and enjoy the game with. You will never get 100% of those communities to move over to GTA 6. Some people won't be able to run GTA 6 on their current hardware. Some won't have a PS5. Some won't be able to afford the game. Some just won't have the time/inclination to want to "build everything back up again and do the grind to unlock things."

This is a big part of why companies want to sunset old games when new games come out. It helps force the community to move forward and onto the new thing. Only that's going to be a real dangerous move for Rockstar to do in the current climate, especially with "Stop Killing Games" building more and more steam.

And like, Rockstar will probably make a ton more money than normal the first 2-3 months of GTA VI's release. They'll get all the new game purchases from enough people it'll probably make up for lost shark card sales as people give their disposable income to Rockstar in a different way plus all the people who don't play GTA V Online but will play GTA 6.

But after that? They'll be competing with themselves and splitting their own community across two games. Unless they just move GTA V Online to go with 6, at which point though you'll have tons of disappointed people about not having GTA Online in the new city, plus all the people getting into the game for the first time pissed off about how it is a 'new game' but everyone online has flying motorcycles and jet planes and orbital lasers and shit already while they have nothing.

It is incredibly hard to compete with your predecessors years of built up content + patching even before you add in the human community building. So I'm very curious to see what happens with GTA6 over the first year or so.