For Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 were a huge success. Both games very quickly became some of the best-selling video games of all time. The high from Grand Theft Auto 5 alone helped bolster the expensive and highly detailed Red Dead Redemption 2, which eventually paid for itself anyway in sales. However, neither game bothered to expand the singleplayer experience with any additional content, something Grand Theft Auto 6 could be well-positioned to do instead.
Singleplayer DLC was often requested by hardcore fans on Grand Theft Auto 5, and was also highly rumored thanks to data miners finding evidence of a supposedly canceled expansion. The explosion in popularity between Grand Theft Auto Online, and to some extent Red Dead Online, likely ended any plans for singleplayer content in favor of expanding the multiplayer experience. While that's certainly not a bad thing considering how massively popular Online was, Grand Theft Auto 6 doesn't need to forgo singleplayer content this time around.
Grand Theft Auto/Red Dead Online's Explosion in Popularity
It's understandable that Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online have become the main focuses for expansions. Grand Theft Auto 5 may have been one of the best-selling games of all time, but the microtransactions from Grand Theft Auto Online certainly raked in an even more enormous profit for Rockstar Games. Luckily, fans of GTA Online were living like literal kings in five-star penthouses thanks to extended development support post-launch, which essentially morphed Grand Theft Auto Online into a strangely addicting MMO-like experience. The same deal goes for the slightly less popular Red Dead Online.
However, even after all of the free expansions to both experiences and the huge amount of fan and developer support, there was still a yearning from fans for singleplayer DLC. Rockstar Games has commented a few times in an official capacity about the lack of singleplayer content, mostly pointing to both the development of Red Dead Redemption 2 and more so Grand Theft Auto Online. Rockstar Games' director of design Imran Sarwar had mentioned in an interview that they loved singleplayer content "more than anything," but scrapped the idea because Online's development "sucked up a lot of resources," it never came to be.
Rockstar's New Development Approach Has Potential
However, Grand Theft Auto 6 could be in a much better position to implement post-launch singleplayer content this time around. For one thing, unfortunate circumstances due to developer crunch did force Rockstar Games to make some organizational changes, but they may have been for the best in the end. According to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier (reporting at the time for Kotaku), Grand Theft Auto 6 is planned to release "moderately sized" to help mitigate Rockstar Games problem with developer crunch. However, it is possible that the game's map, multiplayer, and most importantly singleplayer content could be expanded progressively over time.
It'd be a unique approach to a game like Grand Theft Auto, which traditionally has a relatively moderate-length story mode and gigantic map shipping with the game at launch. However, this new approach could actually be beneficial on both the singleplayer and multiplayer front. Theoretically, players would stick with the game longer if there's a promise for further updates on both the singleplayer and multiplayer modes. Taking almost like an episodic Life is Strange approach to updates could be an interesting and enticing way for singleplayer fans to keep playing Grand Theft Auto 6 long after the game's shipped.
Progressive Story Content Isn't Likely, But It's Possible
It is worth noting that this new development approach by Rockstar Games may not necessarily equate to progressive story content in Grand Theft Auto 6. As mentioned previously, Grand Theft Auto (and Rockstar Games in general) have never really had any experience or desire to tell episodic stories like this before, at least not on this scale. Previous singleplayer expansions for Grand Theft Auto 4 or Red Dead Redemption were all self-contained stories with very few connections to previous plot points. It'd be an interesting take, but considering the way Rockstar Games designs and writes its games, episodic story content doesn't seem likely.
If anything, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a pure example of their aversion to episodic content. Arthur's journey throughout Red Dead Redemption 2, and even John's epilogue, were all isolated stories with a cohesive progression. There wasn't much left up to interpretation or very many cliffhangers, even though there are some characters that could have their own spin-off games. Overall, Rockstar Games could potentially dip into progressive story content that evolves and changes over time. The company has never showed a desire to do so previously, but it would be a unique take that's never been seen in a Rockstar game before.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is reportedly in development.