A wealth of information was provided regarding Grand theft Auto‘s future by Rockstar Games in today’s Community Update, most notably a formal update on GTA VI.
Grand Theft Auto V, one of the most re-released titles outside of Skyrim and Resident Evil 4, is finally getting a release date of March 15 on PS5 and Xbox Series X. After the stringent delays, the title promises “technical advancements of the latest console generation with faster loading times, immersive 3D audio, platform-specific features like advanced haptic feedback, and much more.”
The upgrade to the new hardware allows GTA Online players a huge quality of life feature, in the way of skipping the opening prologue scene, previously unable to skip, right out of the gate. This lets fans jump straight into online hi-jinx without the need for a lengthy prologue.
GTA V veterans can transfer all of their story saved data and their GTA Online progression via a one-time migration when the highly anticipated new console version makes the drop.
A new ‘Career Builder’ will also be implemented, which lets new players have a faster start out of the gate. One of four businesses—Biker, Executive, Nightclub Owner, or Gunrunner—and a good amount of GTA$ will help new players allocate to their new criminal lifestyles seamlessly. This can include help procuring heavy weaponry, a base of operations, and even a high-end vehicle to have a leg up when just starting out in Grand Theft Auto Online. Returning players are also given this option, they can reset characters and utilize the career builder at any time.
The GTA Story mission set titled ‘The Contract’ helped bring the storyline into the GTA Online canon by seeing Franklin Clinton set up his celebrity solutions agency, giving a background to Dr. Dre in GTA, and giving fans unreleased tracks outside the game. Now, players can have these tracks officially today on all major music services (Spotify, Apple Music).
The next-gen update also allows the players to entirely sidestep these story missions, so they could experience the co-op player gameplay of ‘short trips’ without having to go through the prerequisite story first. Another quality of life improvement, indeed.
GTA Online will receive a standalone entry as well, allowing players to completely forego the story mode and play online. This option will be available first to PS5 owners, three months earlier at the launch than other platforms.
Finally, with the new console versions, GTA Online will give fans full access to the new Hao’s Special Works auto shop, giving the opportunity to upgrade special cars to get the most out of your chosen method of transportation. Five new vehicles will be customizable in this way, along with five already existing vehicles. The shop is located inside the LS car meet.
Regarding GTA VI, Rockstar only confirms “that active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway” with no other information available at this time, basically just saying what was pretty much obvious.
Any more information fans may need can be found on the Rockstar website, and updates on any exciting advancements may be found blasted on their Official Twitter account.
Grand Theft Auto V finally releases, on next-gen consoles, on March 15.
