After years of rumors, leaks, and rampant speculation,Grand Theft Auto 6was officially unveiled in December 2023. But then things went quiet.GTA 6wasn’t seen again in any official capacity until a few weeks ago, whenRockstar debuted a second trailerand announced that the long-awaited sequel was being pushed back to Jun 28, 2025. The wait will be agonizing for many, but it’s good to finally have a concrete release date, one that hopefully doesn’t move again. But the same can’t be said forGrand Theft Auto 6’s online component.
There’s still no official word on whetherGTA 6will receive an online mode of its own, let alone confirmation of when that potential online mode could launch. Some recent rumors suggestGrand Theft Auto 6’s online component could be sold separately and arrive a little while after the base game’s launch, but nothing has been officially announced just yet. But even if/whenGTA 6’s online mode gets an official confirmation and release date, fans might want to take it with a pinch of salt.
Grand Theft Auto 6 Online’s Eventual Launch Might Not Go To Plan
Multiplayer Game Launches Don’t Usually Go Smoothly
Despite multiplayer games being some of the most successful in the entire industry, issues can still arise on launch day and beyond that significantly impact the user experience. One of the biggest issues that still plagues online-only games is server capacity. While the biggest multiplayer games are equipped to handle hundreds of thousands of players at once, a sudden influx of users can still cause issues, whether it’sserver-wide lagor crashes.
Though many developers can fix these server issues within a matter of days or sometimes even just hours, any downtime is bad, as it means eager players are left without access. This can be especially harmful when it’s a new game launch, as it can all but eliminate the player’s desire to try out the new title.
Grand Theft Auto 6’s online modewon’t need to worry about losing players' interest, but it’s still very likely to suffer from these day-one server issues as it’s bound to receive an absurdly high number of players during its launch window. So, while some players might technically be able to hop intoGTA 6Online on its eventual release day, that day-one experience could be far from ideal, and it could be quite some time before players are able to enjoy a stable experience.
Grand Theft Auto 5 Online’s Launch Was a Disaster
Rockstar already has some experience with disappointing multiplayer launches. Back whenGrand Theft Auto 5 Onlinewas released in October 2013, a few weeks after the base game, it was virtually impossible to get into a game and stay there for longer than a few minutes.Rockstar’s serversweren’t ready for the sheer number of players wanting to jump in at launch, and those issues persisted for a good few days before the developer could put some fixes in place.
Online gaming has come a very long way since 2013, and Rockstar is undoubtedly more aware of the incoming demand forGrand Theft Auto 6’s online mode. But even with a plan in place, there’s a strong possibility thatGTA 6Online’s day one experiencewill be less than perfect.
