Rockstar Games has reportedly shut down the idea that GTA 6 will feature microtransactions or use generative AI during its development.
On the Kinda Funny Gamecast, hosts Andy Cortez and Greg Miller share that they asked Rob Nelson – co-studio head at Rockstar North – whether there will be microtransactions in the game and whether generative AI was used during the development of GTA 6, with Nelson reportedly simply saying "no."
I have no doubts about the lack of generative AI used during development, but the lack of microtransactions is certainly interesting. It was revealed that GTA Online makes a staggering amount of almost $8 million per week, and that's undoubtedly thanks to Shark Card microtransactions for sale. It looks unlikely that GTA 6 Online will be available at launch, but this could imply that whatever the GTA 6 edition of GTA Online is could be a separate thing entirely.
We know for sure that GTA Online is on the way, thanks to court proceedings, but Rockstar has remained silent about what the GTA 6 edition of the Online mode will look like – not that it's been very talkative about the base game either, mind you. Although a later launch for an online mode isn't out of the ordinary for Rockstar, given that GTA 5 had a two-week wait before GTA Online launched, while Red Dead Redemption 2's Online mode launched in beta form a month later, with its full launch around a year and a half after launch.
I very much have my doubts we'll see a GTA 6 Online that doesn't feature microtransactions in some way, or a battle pass, or any other number of ways to monetize it for the next decade and a half. But at least we know it's not in the base game.
How long is GTA 6? About 80 hours, according to one Rockstar dev's playthrough.
