Grand Theft Auto Online was such a massive hit that Rockstar pivoted entirely off a standalone GTA V DLC to focus on it, according to a former camera artist at Rockstar.
Speaking with creator SanInPlay in a YouTube interview, Joseph Robino talked about his timeline as a cinematography expert at Rockstar, during which he mentions that there was a GTA V DLC that was never released. SanInPlay mentions that a lot of the code involved in the DLC was leaked, and that actor recording for it had already been mentioned by others, which prompts further conversation.
“When GTA [Online] came out, it was so much of a cash cow, and people were loving it so much, it was hard to make an argument that a standalone DLC would out-compete that,” he elaborated. “I think looking back now, I would say you could probably do both, you know? But that was a business decision they made.”
Robino admits that he was a bit salty after all that work—which is fair, given his role was directly affected by the decision, working directly on the story for GTA—but he looked forward and kept working on GTA Online and Red Dead Redemption 2. Plus, not everything went to waste, as Robino says he saw some components from the development eventually make it into GTA Online.
In the interview, he gets into some of the creative process, too, and how his work on GTA became essential to how other teams “filmed” and worked on their games, to the point where his team was kept in Rockstar’s most secure offices in New York City.
At the very least, it seems the focus on GTA Online paid off to some degree, as it remains one of the longest-standing AAA online experiences to this day. Technically an "MMORPG," it does get more than occasional content drops and DLC packs, too, so there’s definitely work cut out for those still at Rockstar.
