Last week, millions of gamers around the world helped make Grand Theft Auto V the most successful game launch in history. Now those same gamers are making their way through the world of Los Santos, and will no doubt find themselves facing the end credits screen soon enough. That won’t be the end, however, as their own personal story will begin in Grand Theft Auto Online.
Rockstar took to its official blog today to update players on the status of the free Grand Theft Auto Online update coming to GTAV in October. The developer says that it still plans to roll out GTA Online on October 1, but wants players to know that it probably won’t be perfect at launch.
The first couple of weeks we expect to be heavily focused on tuning the experience as it goes from internal testing to the reality of being played by tons of people in the real world so that all the usual teething problems for an online game are overcome. We hope it will all run incredibly smoothly, but please bear with us if it doesn’t, and help us fix any and all problems!
During the first few weeks and throughout the life of the game, Rockstar wants the players to decide the evolution of its first persistent online world. The team wants players to tell them everything, from what kind of missions they want to see in GTA Online to how they should approach future content updates. Rockstar will also be setting up a dedicated email address for players to submit bugs and suggestions.
Oh, and Rockstar is already prepping to make sure it has the server capacity to handle everybody logging into GTA Online when it goes live next month.:
One thing we are already aware of, and are trying to alleviate as fast as we can, is the unanticipated additional pressure on the servers due to a significantly higher number of players than we were anticipating at this point – we are working around the clock to buy and add more servers, but this increased scale is only going to make the first few days even more temperamental than such things usually are. This is part of the problem some of you have been experiencing with the iFruit App and some Social Club services – we apologize in advance for this and thank you for your patience in this area.
As for the gameplay of GTA Online itself, Rockstar says that players can expect all the fun of the single-player campaign but with up to 16 friends. You can take on heists, compete in races and sports, and customize your character to however you see fit.
Rockstar also confirms that the GTA Online economy will run off of its own currency called GTA$. Players will be able to earn the in-game currency through complete missions and winning races, and that money can then be used to buy in-game items. If you don’t want to earn your money, you can bypass all that by spending real world money to purchase GTA$. Rockstar affirms that GTA Online can be fully enjoyed without spending a single dime, and that the microtransactions are only there for those who don’t want to put in the effort.
On a final note, Rockstar says that it already has a number of expansions in the works for GTA Online, including a content creator, the beach bum pack, a Capture the Flag mode and co-op Heists missions. All of this will be made available for free as will all other expansions for GTA Online.
[Image: Rockstar Newswire]