Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two has discussed the fate of GTA Online for the first time, as the long-awaited arrival of GTA 6 – currently set for this autumn – draws ever closer.
On the one hand, GTA Online has been an absolute cash cow over the past decade, earning billions for developer Rockstar and publisher Take-Two. Switching off overnight seems unthinkable. On the other, it seems unlikely Take-Two will want fans continuing to play the current version of GTA Online indefinitely, if doing so meant not buying GTA 6.
Speaking to IGN, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick addressed the issue hesitantly, but suggested there was a future for GTA Online still.
“I’m going to speak theoretically only because I’m not going to talk about a particular project when an announcement hasn’t been made,” Zelnick said. “But generally speaking, we support our properties when the consumers are involved with those titles.”
And it is fair to say consumers are still involved with GTA Online – it is GTA 5‘s online portion that has continued to be regularly updated with new content, and that is still driving sales of the game after 13 years.
“As an example, we launched NBA 2K Online in China, I think originally in 2012 if I’m not mistaken,” Zelnick went on. “And then we launched NBA 2K Online 2 in China in 2017. If I’m not mistaken. We did not sunset Online 1. They both are still in the market and they serve consumers and they’re alive and we have this massive audience.
“So we’ve shown a willingness to support legacy titles when a community wants to be engaged with them,” he concluded.
For now, then, it seems likely GTA Online players will able to continue playing with their arsenal of weapons, garage full of cars and virtual real estate empire into the forseeable future.
Still, we’d expect to hear more detail from Rockstar later this year on whether GTA Online’s bigger content updates will continue, or whether there comes a point when GTA 6 is the developer’s full focus.
GTA 6 is currently set for launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S at some point this autumn, if it doesn’t receive a delay. This week, a peripheral manufacturer suggested GTA 6’s PC version would follow in early 2026. Take-Two previously seemed to suggest a Switch 2 version of GTA 6 wasn’t out of the question, either.
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