When Rockstar failed to release any single-player DLC content for Grand Theft Auto V, many fans wondered if Rockstar had abandoned their cinematic story roots in favor of the lucrative multiplayer microtransaction market.
However, Rockstar says that’s simply not true.
“No, it was not really a conscious decision, it’s just what happened,” said Rockstar’s director of design Imran Sarwar during a Game Informer interview regarding the lack of single-player DLC for GTA V. “With GTA V, the single-player game was absolutely massive and very, very complete. It was three games in one. The next-gen versions took a year of everyone’s time to get right, then the online component had a lot of potential but to come close to realising that potential, also sucked up a lot of resources. And then there are other games – in particular Red Dead Redemption II. The combination of these three factors means for this game, we did not feel single-player expansions were either possible or necessary.”
Sarwar goes on to say that Rockstar would “love to do more single-player add-ons for games in the future” and that “As a company, we [Rockstar] love single-player more than anything, and believe in it absolutely – for storytelling and a sense of immersion in a world, multiplayer games don’t rival single-player games.”
It’s hard not to see Rockstar’s point, even if it’s equally hard to hear. GTA V was a massive single-player game – especially compared to GTA IV – that has a lot to offer in terms of pure content. If fans were asked whether or not they’d rather have GTA V single-player DLC or RDR II in a reasonable time frame, we’d suspect that many would choose the latter.
Still, you’re forgiven for lamenting the lack of GTA V DLC if for no other reason than the fact that Rockstar has traditionally released exceptional single-player DLC content. Red Dead Redemption‘s Undead Nightmare expansion is considered by many to be the best piece of DLC ever designed, and GTA IV‘s The Ballad Of Gay Tony arguably eclipsed the original game.
With any luck, we’ll get similar exceptional expansion content from Rockstar in the future.