r/technology • u/TurbulentTopic39 • Aug 28 '26
Artificial Intelligence Grand Theft Auto 6 Will Have No Microtransactions Or Generative AI
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/grand-theft-auto-6-will-have-no-microtransactions-or-generative-ai/5.3k
u/Mighty-Wings Aug 28 '26
GTA6 won't, however GTA 6 Online will be riddled like a cheap hooker.
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u/Man0fGreenGables Aug 28 '26
Isn't the "deluxe edition" or whatever they are calling it technically a micro transaction anyways?
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u/SEND_ME_NOODLE Aug 28 '26
That would be a macro transaction, no?
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u/NeverDiddled Aug 28 '26
Yeah, you have to count every inch of the transaction. Don't sell it short.
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u/ForensicPathology Aug 28 '26
What micro-transactions aren't macro-transactions these days? Do they even have 3 dollar skins anymore? Sure any game with gacha gambling has the option to buy a single pull for 2 dollars, but everyone knows that's burning your money because the things you get in between the big pull are things you literally throw away from your inventory. People don't buy 2 dollar pulls, they buy 60 dollar ones.
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u/Ok_Tea_8763 Aug 28 '26
Hey, watch you mouth! Our world wouldn't be the same without cheap hookers! Comparing them to Rockstar's greed is insulting
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u/Waylanding_Fox Aug 28 '26
No shit GTA online is where the money is at
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u/donny_pots Aug 28 '26
Which is crazy to me because as someone who has hundreds of hours into GTA online, the grind is the entire game. Paying real money to buy shit in the game is like paying money to see the credits on another game, it just defeats the entire purpose IMO
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u/ForensicPathology Aug 28 '26
The games are specifically designed to make the grind more annoying than in a properly balanced game.
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u/donny_pots Aug 28 '26
I wouldn’t even consider it a grind tbh, I play with friends we only do activities we all enjoy
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u/PhantomPhelix Aug 28 '26
GTA 6 and GTA 6 Online, are not the same thing.
This is a misleading PR piece.
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u/dead1345987 Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
okay, no investment in single player DLC stories again, got it.....
all post launch dev time is going to bug fixes and GTA+/online...I dont like it, but its the truth.
I'm just remembering "The Lost and the Damned" and "The Ballad of Gay Tony" some of the best GTA gameplay and stories to play, and it was the only GTA story DLC to date (GTA 4)
Trevor's intro cutscene in GTA 5, he kills Johnny, the main protagonist from Lost and the Damned GTA 4 DLC
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u/marcw1771ams Aug 28 '26
Difficult to tell from the working of the article, but my understanding is that "micro transactions" as a DLC category is generally used more to refer to things like skins and in game items etc, rather than a traditional type of DLC such as game expansions.
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u/ImCelestial Aug 28 '26
A macro transaction
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Aug 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/__Yakovlev__ Aug 28 '26
I remember going to the store and buying the physical disk for the halo 2 map pack.
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u/automatic_shark Aug 28 '26
I still remember the outrage and ridicule over horse armour. Imagine if people back then could see what it would turn into.
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u/jdsizzle1 Aug 28 '26
Yup. Expansion packs aka DLC arent what I consider micro transactions. That would be guns, skills, costumes, characters, cars, car skins, etc... all the bullshit you dont really need. They can be shitty too tho, like Hitman where they released a quarter of a game and made you buy the rest of it.
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u/nobertan Aug 28 '26
So like the clothes shops? Being held behind an optional pay wall.
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u/zwingo Aug 28 '26
The one thing I have to say to be fair to Rockstar is outside of RDR1 and GTA 4 I’m struggling to think of any games from them that did have DLC/expansions. Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m definitely not an encyclopedia of Rockstar games, but I don’t think they were ever really that big on the side stuff.
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u/imcrazyandproud Aug 28 '26
They canceled their in development gta5 dlc when gta online started making buckets of cash
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u/KoniGTA Aug 28 '26
i think it got resused in the future updates/heists along with the michael franklin trevor dlc that the game put out. Still not a fan about the way they did it.
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u/Winjin Aug 28 '26
I'm still salty how much content is locked away to those with friends and normalised schedules
I don't want to log on to the game like work to play Online. I don't know when I will have the time and will to play. And even less I want to play with random people that run through missions like mad men because half of them know them inside and out and are doing them for fifteenth time and are just farming them
I did some yacht mission and all I remember is that while I was shooting some guard these lvl 500 guys blasted through every room did an objective and one of them put a helicopter in a pool to evacuate me faster
I didn't even manage to see half of the yacht and I don't know what that mission was at all :\
Not to mention that it's impossible to just ride around when people on flying bikes blast everyone left and right
No sir I don't like Online one bit
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u/Batman_wears_Crocs Aug 28 '26
Bro yes, it wants to be a full-time gig. It wants to be your only game. Fuck that, even if it's good and fun with friends, the endless grinding to get any money in game makes it unfun.
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u/dead1345987 Aug 28 '26
I think they dropped single player dlc, when they discovered GTA online could make them so much money. RDR2 never got dlc like RDR1 did, but tbh, RDR2 never felt like it needed it, its such a crazy big game. Witch I hope GTA 6 is, but I think more stories would still be fun.
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u/Wolkenbaer Aug 28 '26
RDR2 never felt like it needed it, its such a crazy big game
Total opposite opinion- because it is so big I never understood why not use all assets, a good writer and add another story. I‘d have loved to pay for that.
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u/ALL_PUNS_INTENDED Aug 28 '26
The Undead Nightmare dlc from Red Dead Redemption is goated. I spent so many hours on that and I’m going to dig out my 360 so I can play it again.
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u/bishopmate Aug 28 '26
I have a friend who owned Undead Nightmare on disk, and when talking about it he said “It’s a fun game, but I kinda wish they just had a wild west game without the zombies…”
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u/upvotesthenrages Aug 28 '26
It's interesting because you'd kinda think that dropping a new DLC every few years would re-ignite a lot of focus from dormant players and new audience.
But no, they just milked the whales they already had instead.
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u/voltran1995 Aug 28 '26
Why bother making single player dlc, they make billions selling fake money. And it's not like GTA falls out of popularity.
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u/_Bisky Aug 28 '26
Tbf mainly cause they make SIGNFICANTLY more with miceotransactions in GTA online, then they do with DLCs.
That plus it tends to cost them less then developing a whole DLC
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u/skibbidywibbidy Aug 28 '26
They could have thrown the single player fans one bone and still made money from the shark cards, hope they keep it I mind for 6
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u/Time_Zombie_4431 Aug 28 '26
If there is ever a game that should get SP DLC it’s GTA. GTA 4 showed us that. It’s a fucking crime we never got SP DLC for V.
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u/quagmirranseye Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
What are you on about? DLCs isnt mictrotransactions.
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u/1995LexusLS400 Aug 28 '26
I absolutely agree. And you can thank TakeTwo for that.
TLAD & TBOGT did generate a profit for them, but not as much as TakeTwo expected. GTA Online is the complete opposite. They weren’t expecting it to make much, but it made way more than anticipated. So, TakeTwo orders Rockstar to only develop Online content.
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u/zerosuneuphoria Aug 28 '26
because it will be re-released 40 times, hence the fps lock at 30. You gotta upgrade if you want more.
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u/hardypart Aug 28 '26
This is not some kind of capitalistic conspiracy, the PS5 simply couldn't get anywhere close to 60FPS with this game.
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u/OlXondof Aug 28 '26
I'm surprised I haven't seen people asking how Series S is supposed to run it even at 30...
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u/First_Studio Aug 28 '26
It's locked at THIRTY?!?!
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u/Heil_S8N Aug 28 '26
RDR2 is also locked at 30 on consoles despite the console technically being able to push up to 60 with some framedrops.
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u/theGioGrande Aug 28 '26
PS4 systems didn't support VRR. And a jail broken PS4 pro wasnt consistently 60fps. People would just complain about stutter.
It was never a GPU bottleneck, but a CPU one instead.
And I feel that GTAVI is in a similar situation for PS5.
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u/L0rdLogan Aug 28 '26
Grand theft auto 6, won’t have micro transactions, but you can bet that GTA online will still have them
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u/thecreepytoast Aug 28 '26
So macrotransactions, got it
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u/MrCookieHUN Aug 28 '26
I mean, stores you cannot access unless you buy the deluxe edition ARE there sooo
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u/zillskillnillfrill Aug 28 '26
What do they call the ultimate edition then where you get extra shops?
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u/frulheyvin Aug 28 '26
wow totally justifies gta6 being riddled with random paywalled shit if you dont buy the 100$ turbo edition. the cattle will buy buy buy anyways so who cares
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u/HamburgerHalperHand Aug 28 '26
Does the $20 of locked map locations not count?
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u/fredagsfisk Aug 28 '26
By actual definition of the terms? No. Different editions are not microtransactions, even if they include things commonly sold as microtransactions (and also make money from FOMO).
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u/AshgarPN Aug 28 '26
The extra $20 to unlock everything feels like a micro transaction
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u/Furious_ShackstAa Aug 28 '26
Single player won’t online definitely will
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u/TechnicalSurround Aug 28 '26
Single player won’t, online definitely will*
FTFY
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u/Anas56776 Aug 28 '26
why cant people use commas man, took me like 3 reads to make sense of his comment.
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u/aleqqqs Aug 28 '26
Comas are important, for example: "Steve is in a hurry" vs "Steve is in a coma".
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u/bb0110 Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
Obviously gta6 online will, but I’m actually fine with this distinction. Keep the bullshit out of the regular game and if you want all the bullshit then play gta6 online.
They could have very easily added a lot of it to the single player version with the success of it on online, but I’m glad they didn’t.
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u/DUH455T Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
What about the $30 upgrade to the Ultimate Edition that unlocks stores, cosmetics, etc?
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u/Lycria Aug 28 '26
Isn’t several shops in the single player locked behind a $20 dollar deluxe edition paywall?
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u/Jman460 Aug 28 '26
So the “deluxe” package to access specific stores in solo is what exactly?
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u/Excuse_my_GRAMMER Aug 28 '26
No microtransaction my ass lmao
Maybe the single player game but gta6 online is going to be have more MTX than a Chinese gacha game
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u/RhazimGaming Aug 28 '26
I'm just waiting for the announcement that GTA 6 Online will have to be purchased separately for another 80 bucks, because fuck us.
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u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 Aug 28 '26
This won’t happen purely on the fact that a free entry model is far more lucrative when they couple it with shark card purchases. More people playing Online = more people visiting the store. Theyll want it to be accessible
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u/Jay95au Aug 28 '26
Yeah no microtransactions, this will be the worlds first game to have macrotransactions.
Rather than being able to spend small, little or microscopic amounts of money compared to the price of a full game, these will be huge, obscene or macroscopic amounts of money compared to the price of a full game.
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u/Godess_Ilias Aug 28 '26
press x to doubt
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u/Hegiman Aug 28 '26
GTA VI won’t but GTA online will have a buttload. Which is what ROCKSTAR has always done.
I just hope we get dlc for the single player campaign this time but I doubt that will happen b
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u/Robespierre1113 Aug 28 '26
Ahahahahahahahaha
Please, this was how we started out GTA5, absolutely no micro transaction! No way to get a leg up other than to beat other opponents !!!
Then script kiddies dropped trillions in public lobbies and r* went
"....so shark cards?"
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u/HoldOnOhio Aug 28 '26
We know they're going to pretend GTA online/GTA + is a different thing. They will not leave billions of dollars on the table. GTA V Online literally has made several billion dollars and is largely what makes GTA V the most profitable retail game of all time.
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u/Adrian_Alucard Aug 28 '26
Yeah, sure. the game that locks content away if you buy the poor's edition won't have microtransactions. 100% real, no fake bro
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u/FoldedBinaries Aug 28 '26
so no AI tool was implemented in the official workflow.
But all the outsourced animators also didnt use AI? Thats a bold claim
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Aug 28 '26
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u/branm008 Aug 28 '26
That doesn't mean they didnt bring in AI tools in recent years before things started to get greenlit. It's also Rockstar, they're not exactly known for their integrity so we'll see when the game is live and people start data mining things.
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u/Rhyman96 Aug 28 '26
They have had dozens of companies working on various little bits of the game, and whilst it has been in development for a long time, it doesn't seem believable that nobody has used AI over the last few years.
That said, who cares if someone used AI to speed up a small task or add additional functionality?
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u/Blackfoxar Aug 28 '26
No micro transactions? Have they given up on shark cards?
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u/dylan_1992 Aug 28 '26
But 7 definitely will.
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u/mighthaveabitlater Aug 28 '26
We've probably got 20 years or so to worry about that
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u/CloudStrife012 Aug 28 '26
It will be macrotransactions by then, and youll need to be a Rockstar premium plus gold tier subscription member to even have access to the game, which will require you to pay $20 for every hour played.
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u/Chaine351 Aug 28 '26
I'll believe that when I see it.
As in, I can believe that the single player won't, but I'll be damned if the online doesn't. Rockstar has a history of maybe the most egregious micro transaction schemes from any game I know, and I doubt they'll just drop it.
Inb4 anyone disagrees, it was rdr2 online. The cost of getting things in that game was nuts.
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u/Babak_Lurker Aug 28 '26
Didn't they already announce that there would be a more expensive version of the game with special access to some in game shops and accessories? I don't trust them, this kinda just seems like easy PR to cover for going all digital.
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u/Jamesc89 Aug 28 '26
I do not believe that they won’t have those shark cards again
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u/branm008 Aug 28 '26
GTA 6 online will absolutely have shark cards again. The single player campaign is likely going to get shafted just like GTA 5 was, hence the no micro transactions.
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u/User2716057 Aug 28 '26
Since they were introduced they got, on average, $1 million PER DAY from those cards. They'd be stupider than the people buying them if they didn't keep selling em.
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u/mysqlpimp Aug 28 '26
GTA6 Online 100% will. Just watched the extended trailer, and for PS5, it looks fucking great. Waiting for PC release is going to suck though.
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u/Coneder Aug 28 '26
Bullshit. The upgrade path from not going for the 100$ edition is 100% a microtransaction.
Kudos on them for no AI, I guess. That should be the canary in the coal mine for AI snake oil.
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u/Ryidon Aug 28 '26
Grand Theft Auto 6 Online though will. Because if Grand Theft Auto 5 Online made them 5 billion dollars, then we should expect them to try it again.
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u/BigStonedHornyKitty Aug 28 '26
How can they say this when the deluxe edition or whatever you want to call it is essentially a microtransaction?
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u/Dull-Treat-2524 Aug 28 '26
Yeah because GTA6 online isn't out. that will be filled to the brim with MTX lol
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u/BuriedStPatrick Aug 28 '26
That "not having the word 'online' in the title" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here lmao.
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u/TheBestDrRuthless Aug 28 '26
I can imagine, that GTA online will have a generative KI, that gets triggered with microtransactions
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u/ViewAdditional7400 Aug 28 '26
Because they've been working on it for 10 years, before LLMs were good.
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u/DJMarscribble Aug 28 '26
according to one source, GTA VI won’t have any microtransactions at launch
Yeah because multiplayer won't be available at launch. Same deal with GTA V.
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u/zero0n3 Aug 28 '26
Remember, “no generative AI” doesn’t mean “our devs won’t use AI to code or accelerate expansion packs.
So I’d expect no micro transactions for SP, but I bet a very consistent DLC cycle of new content constantly being sdded
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u/Ahayzo Aug 28 '26
Nah it's probably gonna be like V where they just abandon the single player game at launch as far as content additions. GTA Online is their real money maker and that's gonna have microtransactions out the ass.
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u/Kitty-XV Aug 28 '26
Are you saying that generating code using AI isn't generative AI? If one allows that exception, what's to stop them from saying that generated images or voices isn't generative AI?
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u/suitable_replies Aug 28 '26
Tomorrows disclaimer: GTA 6 and GTA 6 online are two separate entities.