Why Rockstar Games Hasn't Made Single-Player DLC for GTA 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2

GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2's online offerings are massive successes, making it unlikely for Rockstar Games to go back to singleplayer DLC.

[Hofstaderman]

Didnt bother to read the article. My guess would be because the online multi-player is very popular and the base game has been released on three generations of consoles and still sells well? This refers to GTA V

[Phoenix76]

Yep, your absolutely right.
It takes this article 6 full paragraphs to come to the same answer.

[myfathersbastard]

Yeah that is exactly why. But it still makes no sense to me. R* was known for putting out some of the most compelling expansions of the time with Undead Nightmare, the ballad of gay Tony and lost and damned.
It really seems like leaving money on the table so to speak. Like I don’t play the online for eith RDR or GTA. But I would 100% buy some single player DLC for both. And I’m sure a large part of the community is the same way. It’s not going to take away from the people who like the online modes so I’m not sure why not just make the DLC to get the single player people back. I haven’t touched GTA5 in a few years so wouldn’t it be better to give people like me a reason to actually come back and maybe even buy the next gen version AGAIN for it. Seems like a waste to me.

[roadkillers]

If Rockstar is like any other corporation, they run a cost-reward analysis. If their cost is relativity low have employees do one thing and reward is high, this is what they will op for.

Ex: The cost reward ratio for maintaining GTA5 is low while the reward is high. Creating a GTA5 expansion would probably be medium cost and high reward. It takes many more departments to be involved in a large expansion release vs small incremental updates.

[jivah]

Makes no sense to you? Must be poor. They run a basic maintenance budget for an old ass game that continues to rake in billions. Versus spending hundreds of millions on making new content... and it doesnt make sense to you?

[myfathersbastard]

@jivah

“Must be poor” lol
And you must be delusional if you think DLC would cost hundreds of millions to make. They aren’t creating a new game. Just re using assets and maybe 20mill max creating some new storyline stuff. Plus pretty much everyone who bought RDR2 and GTA5 would buy into the DLC packs. Plus create new interest in the next gen version. There’s not a chance in hell they wouldn’t make massive profit on any expansions released.

[PS-Gamer-1986]

" I haven’t touched GTA5 in a few years so wouldn’t it be better to give people like me a reason to actually come back and maybe even buy the next gen version AGAIN for it. "

Same for me. They could add whatever to gta online, give billions ingame cash and i still wouldn't touch it anymore. An expansion on the other hand, i would buy in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately i believe there would be millions and millions who would take a break for a few day or weaks from online, to play the expansion which would result in losses because people wouldnt buy these stupid shark cards during those days

[dbcoops]

So long as people keep paying for the online stuff Rockstar doesn't have much incentive to do anything else really.

[Dirty_Lemons]

Shame because Undead Nightmare was one of the best DLC I ever played.

[porkChop]

UN was great, as was TBoGT.

[myfathersbastard]

How did you get downvotes? Undead Nightmare and The Ballad of Gay Tony were both fantastic. I really liked The Lost and The Damned as well.

[porkChop]

Red Dead Online is not a massive success. There's a reason they had stopped advertising GTA Online for a while and started pushing RDO super hard. There's a reason you can buy RDO standalone but not GTA Online. RDO has players, but it never really took off like GTA Online did.

When RDO first came out it was fun, but really difficult to earn any money, and everything was like 100x more expensive than in the SP. When players complained, Rockstar said they wanted the game to be fun for the community so they would listen to the feedback and rework the in-game economy.

Rockstar reworked the economy alright, they made it significantly *harder* to earn any money and slashed the sell values of everything. Since then they've continuously cut the values of the animals people were hunting and even made them less likely to spawn. For months they removed a ton of animal spawns entirely and said it was a "bug". They've tried to stranglehold the community and force them to buy currency.

That's why RDO never took off. Everything people don't like about GTA Online is 10x worse in RDO. Aside from hardware constraints, that's another big reason why Rockstar is so focused on GTA Online now and aren't in a rush to release GTA VI yet. They know they can't abuse the community, and they know they won't be able to replicate GTA Online's success.

[anast]

I agree. RDO was fun at first, but grinding for week just to change the color of a trigger on one gun is absurd. They also stop making the small one shot stories and pushed PvP Fortnite with cowboys.

[jBlakeeper]

Exactly! GTA Online is still doing extremely well and releasing a new entry could cut into the sales and take players away from GTA online. People will also be expecting some kind of update to the online mode and that is easier said than done considering Rockstar’s unwillingness to mess with the GTA online formula.

[MadLad]

Because jackasses will pay hundreds of dollars buying easily made assets for their online components.

[Muigi]

Sounds like any MMO.

[MadLad]

Eh.

Many MMOs thrive off of subscriptions or expansion releases.

When talking about what were always primarily single player experiences, and then the popularity of the MP component sees games like GTA 5 releasing over 3 generations with not 1 expansion pack, that's the issue.

Has me worried if when, finally, GTA 6 releases, they actually even put the same amount of effort into the actual campaign as they have in the past.

[jBlakeeper]

Everybody already knows what R* has become as of a long time ago! This article is needless.

[pecorre]

Money.

[ZwVw]

They didnt make any for Max Payne 3 either. Seeing a pattern?

[Half13yte]

For as long (and great) as RDR2 was, I'm not sure it needed a single player DLC. The two part Epilogue was plenty.

[metalgod88]

Simple answer: Multi-player is where the monies at. Obviously, Rockstar's strategy worked.

[jdoe]

Another flex of Mensa level IQ there by gamerant. Absolutely brilliant you guys got it all figured out. I'm sure nobody ever thought of this.

[idesmond]

If GTA 4 was on PlayStation I wouldn’t even bother with GTA V but its all we got when it comes to a gta with online multiplayer. 😭

[chicken_in_the_corn]

GTA V's DLC was probably cancelled for the remaster. Rockstar don't have unlimited resources and with the rest of Rockstar North moving onto online and RDR2, cancelling the DLC was probably the only option they had

[Knightofelemia]

If Rockstar were to have built DLC for GTA V we would have been playing it on PS3, XB360, PS4 and XB1. Then that DLC would have been added to Series X and PS5 the DLC would have been out all ready they had 8 yrs to make it. The GTA V DLC is not going to see the light Rockstar are to busy milking the online part of GTA V. As for RDR2 I highly doubt it would get DLC either Rockstar seems more focus milking again the online part. Gamers will probably see GTA 6 before GTA V DLC comes out.

[BrettAwesome]

Shlong answer: GTA Online

[REDGUM]

Because they are milking the older games instead which will draw in the dollars, less work, more pay.
Great for them, not so much for me.

[FlameWater]

The online story DLC is pretty fantastic

[jeromeface]

never bought a shark card or red dead gold.. but I'd buy single player dlc in a heart beat. They are dumb.

[brewin]

Seems crazy that the same company who essentially pioneered sp DLC ( on console) just completely abandoned the practice. I never thought I would buy post launch dlc, until GTA 4 dlc came out. That was the first expansion I ever bought that didn't feel like a rip off! Lost and Damned / Ballad of Gay Tony were the ones that made dlc ok to the gaming community!

[TheHan]

Would honestly love to see story DLC for Red dead 2