Unlike the original GTA Online, it’s rumoured that GTA 6’s online component will be an optional standalone purchase.
Although Rockstar Games has yet to say anything about it, everyone is assuming GTA 6 will come with a separate online multiplayer mode just like GTA 5 did.
Given how lucrative GTA Online has been it’s impossible to imagine there won’t be an equivalent for GTA 6, with an insider report from last month claiming a ‘significant online mode’ is being developed to ‘generate revenue for years.’
Following that, some fans have latched onto a new rumour that GTA Online 2 (or whatever it ends up being called) will be a separate purchase at launch.
The rumour suggests Rockstar and publisher Take-Two Interactive will offer GTA Online 2 as a standalone product, but it will also come bundled with copies of GTA 6, which is currently expected to launch this autumn.
This comes courtesy of dataminer Tez2, who has also shared rumours of Rockstar games in the past, such as cancelled remasters of Red Dead Redemption and GTA 4; a claim later corroborated by a separate report.
Tez2’s comment comes from a GTA Forums thread in response to discussions about the rumours of GTA 6 being priced at $100, which they don’t seem to believe is likely.
‘GTA 6 will be the first game where online is sold separately at launch, while story mode will be part of the full package that covers both,’ writes Tez2.
‘They will have to factor the online standalone price into the total cost. What portion of the base price will be the online’s price? And what would be the story mode upgrade price for those who’ve bought the online standalone?’
However, he doesn’t seem to consider that a bundle including both GTA 6 and GTA Online 2 may itself be the source of the $100 rumours.
Tez2 has made frequent claims about GTA 6 in the past (such as the game getting new cities via DLC), but it remains unclear how many of them are accurate – given how little Rockstar has so far confirmed.
Likewise, Tez2 doesn’t indicate if their claim about GTA Online 2 is based on insider info or is their own speculation. One thing they do theorise is that the standalone online could be sold at a reduced price and allow customers to pay an upgrade fee to access GTA 6.
For what it’s worth, the original GTA Online launched a couple of weeks after GTA 5 and initially wasn’t available on its own. It was just a free add-on exclusive to GTA 5.
Nowadays, though, GTA Online can be purchased separately for £17.99, but only on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. So, at the very least, it’s not unreasonable to assume there’ll be an option to buy GTA Online 2 separately too.
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