Following Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar Games will be reportedly taking a more incremental approach to its future development ventures. What this means is that large-scale productions like Red Dead Redemption 2 may not release all at once like fans expect, instead coming in pieces. This is hope Rockstar is approaching Grand Theft Auto 6, which means the game could look very different from other Rockstar titles. Roger Clark, Arthur Morgan's actor who spent five years working on Rockstar Games' open world western game, expressed genuinely cautious hope regarding Rockstar's new development approach.
Obviously, messing with an established formula for any game can mean life or death for fans, and if anything, Grand Theft Auto 6's far out release date means fans will be waiting for and seeing how this change plays out long-term. However, it's a good look that Rockstar Games is making changes to better the lives of its employees, even if the result may mean new games will release in far different states.
The Future of Grand Theft Auto
In recent months and years, Rockstar Games has shifted and changed several aspects of management in an effort to help mitigate crunch, such as flexible scheduling plans for developers to establish better work hours. However, one important tidbit to come from this change was a new approach to development. For Rockstar Games' upcoming Grand Theft Auto project, the game would "start out with a moderately sized release...that is then expanded with regular updates over time, which may help mitigate stress and crunch."
Starting out with something more "moderately sized" has never really been Rockstar Games' modus operandi, but there could be a future in incremental releases for one game, especially in the world of next-gen and always-on experiences. For Arthur Morgan actor Roger Clark, who devoted a significant amount of his life to ship one of the most ambitious iterations of long-form storytelling in games, he expressed a sentiment that there's genuine promise in incremental game development:
"[It's] hard to say yet. Some positive things I could see it doing is that gamers will see new titles released more frequently. Story add-ons is a fascinating premise, it could introduce a serial aspect to storylines in gaming much more akin to television narratives. Cliffhangers would become a story tool, no doubt."
A potential outcome could be that Grand Theft Auto 6 launches in two separate branches, the single-player and multiplayer, with each receiving consistent updates for as long as possible/necessary. Obviously, the next version of Grand Theft Auto Online would probably receive more attention, but adding on additional story bits in the form of updates could be an interesting approach. After all, fans have been demanding RDR2 DLC for quite some time. Harkening back to the Episodes of Liberty City DLC for Grand Theft Auto 4, perhaps Grand Theft Auto 6's main story could be split into specific chapters or character arcs. Whatever it eventually looks like, Clark expresses trust in Rockstar Games:
"One thing Rockstar have proven themselves in is being able to have one IP satisfy gamers that love both story-driven worlds and playing online with their friends. Add-ons mean that gamers will be able to customize their own game in ways like never before, to suit their own preferences... Now all the gamers who prefer the story mode would have an opportunity to extend their enjoyment of a game like never before."
Games Like RDR2 May Not Be Possible In Rockstar's Immediate Future
Episodic content like Life is Strange isn't really something in Rockstar Games' wheelhouse, but a new approach could kill two birds with one stone: help reduce and mitigate stress with a shorter/less ambitious development cycle, as well as opening up the opportunity for new narrative design. However, from Clark's view, he believes that makes long-form storytelling in games like Red Dead Redemption 2 less feasible:
"I can't see how it will all play out, but it does make epic, longer storylines like Red Dead Redemption 2 seem less likely in the future. On day one of a release at least, but so many exciting possibilities will replace that. From an actor's point of view, I think [that approach] holds a lot of potential."
For now, it's an interesting point of speculation for Rockstar Games' future. With Dan Houser, one of Rockstar's key creatives, retiring earlier this year, Grand Theft Auto 6 could be the first of many games under this new development approach, and it may prove to be the real test of this philosophy and how it affects games like RDR2.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.