It has been four years since "Grand Theft Auto 5" was released and yet, it has never had a single-player story expansion. Now, developer Rockstar Games announced it will never happen.
Back in 2013, Rockstar promised "substantial additions in 2014 continuing Michael, Franklin and Trevor's action, mayhem and unexpected adventures in Southern San Andreas." Now, with 2017 drawing to a close, the gaming company is saying that it is not happening after all.
In an interview with Game Informer, Rockstar design director Imran Sarwar said that it was not a "conscious decision" for the company to not expand the story of "GTA 5." The game already has a strong narrative, to begin with, but the fact that almost all resources were being allotted to the making of "Red Dead Redemption 2" made it impossible to squeeze in a "GTA 5" story expansion.
"With GTA 5, the single-player game was absolutely massive and very, very complete... We did not feel single-player expansions were either possible or necessary, but we may well do them for future projects," Sarwar said.
He went on to say that while the company loves "single-player open-world games more than anything," complex games like this need a lot of time and resources. Bandwidth issues limit "perfectionists" like them from doing more than they hope to.
Apart from "Red Dead Redemption 2," a lot of focus from Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar's parent company, is also going to "GTA Online."
In a 2014 interview with Risk & Reward (via Engadget), Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick referred to "GTA 5" as the "the gift that keeps on giving." The game's online microtransaction platform encourages recurrent consumer spending, and thus more revenue.
Despite the lack of a single-player story expansion, "Grand Theft Auto 5" has enjoyed great reviews and reception since it was launched. A Gamespot report earlier this month said it has been consistently in the top 10 charts of best-selling games worldwide.
