Hey everyone,

The last few days I've been thinking... It's mainly a huge fear of mine. Well here it is. Today marks 2 years since GTA V was released on last gen consoles, and since then, there has been no single player DLC released, at all. Everything from Rockstar has been GTA Online focused. A few days ago IGN asked R* in an interview whether they were considering single player DLC, or if they had any plans. They basically said they have no intentions, and not to expect it anytime soon - if at all. According to them, GTA Online has been an overwhelming success and all their development focus is on it.

For me, this is somewhat disappointing. I haven't been crazy about GTA Online since the day it came out. Most of the time I'm stuck in loading screens infinitely loading, server errors, and so on. And if I do get into a game most of the time, I disconnect. It's not my internet, since I can play other online games (such as Battlefield or Call of Duty) just fine. I think it is a solid addition to GTA V, but I'm not loving GTA multiplayer like I used to. Nor do I think it should "replace" single player at all. Anyway, to the point. GTA Online has been so successful, I'm worried that the next GTA game may be an MMO game. In other words, a GTA game with no single player mode. 

For me, GTA gas always been about single player. R* has been known for creating solid, quality, player enriching single player games. Their single player DLC has also been the epitome of quality, such as the Episodes for GTA IV and Undead Nightmare for RDR. Single player games can tell stories better, and are generally a more cinematic experience than MP (imo). I have no problem if they have both, but I do have a problem if they only choose to do online.

So I'm asking you guys, would you be okay with an all multiplayer, online GTA game? Are you happy with the direction GTA, and R* North themselves are headed? I think my opinion on this is already quite obvious, so now I'm curious as to what other people have to say. After all guys, the police mods that are on this site, LCPDFR and LSPDFR, use the single player mode as a platform. If R* were to only make online Grand Theft Auto games from now on,  I personally think creating an online police mod would be near impossible for our fearless leaders with anti-modding measures, and the general nature of online games. Not only that, but any form of mods in general.  

In the end, I feel that R* are forgetting about single player. It's almost like they're turning into EA, in terms of micro transactions, solely online focus, and so on. Single player games are dying, Ubisoft have my respect for making the upcoming Assassin's Creed Syndicate SP only, with no co-op or MP component. They said themselves this was to focus on creating the best SP experience possible. In contrast, the campaign of GTA V felt somewhat incomplete to me, and I wish R* focused on it more before release, and after release.

TL;DR - R* is neglecting single player, they have no plans for single player DLC, and future GTA games may be online-only, lacking any form of single player. 

Articles to back up my claim:  

http://www.inquisitr.com/2419690/rockstar-games-explains-why-gta-v-wont-have-any-single-player-dlc-any-time-soon/

http://www.vg247.com/2015/09/11/gta-5-no-single-player-dlc-or-new-heists/

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2015/09/single-player-gta-5-dlc-not-coming-anytime-soon/

 

Personally I like a well mix of the two and not just a main focus to MP (cough EA cough). But yeah it seem that since most other AAA company's are heading to an MP looking (or an online world rank in same case's) R* would join in because form some strange resonse this is were games are heading now. I give it 2 more years before most new games are MMO's

I do agree that Rockstar is focusing on multi-player for the majority/all of their work, but if they did not add singleplayer to their games, then they would loose quite a bit of sales, or at least have less sales than usual. I feel that a fairly sized portion of GTA players are ones that buy the game particularly for mods or singleplayer, and occasionally multi-player. For example, I have GTA V, both on Xbox 360 as well as PC, but if it was released at the same time (360/PC/etc. on same day) with the same features as it has currently, I would have only gone for the PC version, as I only use it for modding purposes. I believe that I am not the only one who does this, and in-fact, there is a population of GTA players that do the same.

Grand Theft Auto has always been about the freedom to do what you want, and cause chaos. The singleplayer mode included within these games allows you to do just that, without any other chaos going on. While you can do the same with multi-player, unless in a private match, then it can be quite annoying to have to deal with all the other players. There is also not as great of a storyline in MP. If they only had the option to cause chaos in MP, then it would be a poor move on Rockstar's part, and as I mentioned earlier, I think they would loose sales. Even if the game was multi-player only, they would definitely include a free roam/private match option, where you're free to do whatever.

However, another thing that Rockstar is good at, are storylines. If the game was set to be multi-player only, then there would be a very minimalist storyline, if the new game was anything like the current GTA Online. I think that would also reduce in sales, the storyline in SP was very fun and with all the missions and sidemissions to go along with it, I think that allowed for a greater advertising ability as well as better gameplay. Those two factors alone can contribute to either a player loss or gain.

Overall, I think making the next GTA game MP-only would be a major disaster for Rockstar. As I've said, while I agree that they focus on MP at the current point in time, I think they understand the mistakes of not having singleplayer and at least some (non-built in) moddability. They may do the same thing with the next GTA however, where they release both MP and SP, but then focus primarily on MP. So there will still be the choice, but there will not be many/any updates for SP. I would be fine with that as long as there are little to no bugs, and we can get into the files for modding (which I'm sure we can always do).

I believe games that don't have single player functionality are limited, especially when talking about modding possibilities and choices. Ever since GTA IV, modding has been the only thing to get me to buy the $20.00 (atleast two times, one on steam & another disk version). Not to mention the fact that on most servers mods or modifying the game is considered hacking even if not for malicious purposes. So in the end, I will probably never buy a GTA game that has no single player functionality. 

I'm kind of disappointed in the general direction most games are going. They are either bad early access knock offs of successful titles with very little hope of ever being finished, or MMOs based on existing franchises. There are some exceptions but this is the general direction the industry is headed. I enjoy multiplayer just as much as single player but being forced in to a box that R* defines ala GTA Online and the very specific content they created for it is inherently limiting. I got bored of GTA Online after about a week having done all of the heists and most of the other side missions that can be done. I wish I could play modded in a private lobby. And this is only compounded by the fact that there's probably no single player DLC to come.

cod and bf4 got singleplayer but nobody play that mode

Instead,the majority buy these game solely for multiplayer.

I rarely play GTA: Online so I would like to see the next game feature separate clients for both online and offline mode. This would give modders the flexibility to modify the game without having to update their content every few weeks due to a new "security patch" and also allow Rockstar to really clamp down on online modifications.

Or, instead, why not just give people private servers that allow mods, like SAMP does? The official Rockstar servers could be free of mods and everyone who wants to play with mods could just join a different server. It's undeniable that a large portion of the GTA community discovered/plays the game due to mods, so why not embrace that? Oh, right, the Shark Cards. Gotta milk the fan-base of every last penny!

I think that Rockstar does what any for-profit company does: They do it for the money. Most of the fun is taken away these days in game development, and only the drive and urge to make money remains. 

While GTA modding is a big part of it, I think that we're probably a small bunch of people modding the game (relative to how many owns the game). GTA Online is a money-making machine, with sharkcards providing even more money for the Rockstar Machine. GTA as a game world and concept is great for Online gameplay, if you want to keep making money, which is what they want.

I think that we're a bit nostalgic, and while I don't agree with making a 100% Online game, they would not do it if they didn't think people would play and pay for it. 

But for now, these are mostly rumours if I read this correctly and some stray comment from Rockstar. GTA VI is still far into the future. 

Rockstar would be very stupid to go entirely multiplayer. Both in terms of finance and consumers.

Multiplayer games don't last, they die out when people get bored of grinding levels or they hit max level or they complete all achievements or whatever. When you've done all that you no longer have a goal to keep you playing and all it takes is a few bad games for you to go "why am I still playing this, there's nothing left to unlock". And then all it needs is for someone in the same game genre to make a new game and that's game over.

Eg. CoD. Who here stopped playing the previous CoD game when the new one came out? Probably most people, those who kept playing either wanted that one to die off, couldn't afford the newest or was waiting for christmas/birthday. If you go back to those older games now the player count is like 20% of what it was at peak, and the servers are no longer fully maintained so when a new cheat gets made the anti-cheat doesn't ban them nor does it get updated to consider that.

Now let's look at GTA Vice City. No multiplayer. What's stopping me from reinstalling that on steam and having an hour or so a night of nostalgia fueled gameplay. Nothing. People these days are losing their free time due to being forced into getting jobs, or their education etc. A friend of mine had 3 jobs while at university just so they could afford to live. And then what happens with multiplayer games? you jump back in and find everyone else is 20+ levels higher than you and you get steamrolled ever few seconds, throw the controller down and say "fuck this" cause it's annoyed you.

So yeah, I reckon R* would start to lose out if they went 100% online. Especially since they're so well known for open world sandbox gameplay.

cod and bf4 got singleplayer but nobody play that mode

Instead,the majority buy these game solely for multiplayer.

Ever since Modern Warfare (The original) I don't think anyone has ever said that the single player in either of those games was particularly gripping or even good. GTA, on the other hand has always had excellent single player. That being said, I hope V isn't the Modern Warfare of GTA games. Would be a shame. 

cod and bf4 got singleplayer but nobody play that mode

Instead,the majority buy these game solely for multiplayer.

The fact that anyone would compare the single player mode of a COD or Battlefield game to something along the lines of Grand Theft Auto boggles me. Those games have sub-par single player modes that only offer around 8 hours of gameplay at most. A game like GTA V's single player can offer 100's of hours of gameplay. 

Does anyone has the actual numbers, how many people play Online vs people who stick to SP? GTA will never go MP only, long campaigns with colorful characters have been something the GTA series is very proud of, they will never throw that away. While I got bored of GTA Online "fairly quickly", logged about 85 hours before giving I modded my game, I'm glad they are still working on making Online better because they will eventually add something interesting enough for me not to keep ignoring half of the game completely.

Also I'm almost certain (unless I find cash just laying on the ground) that I wouldn't buy a paid SP dlc or any paid dlc at full price, so personally I'm better off with free Online DLCs that I don't play but which make Online better with every release keeping the online community alive for my return. On the other hand, mods will keep SP alive and R* doesn't have to spend a single dime on it. :)