GTA 5 Story DLC Was Cancelled Because GTA Online Was Generating Significant Revenue

Rockstar has certainly done a great job with GTA 5, but there’s no doubt they’ve milked it extensively. However, it appears they overlooked the opportunity for story DLCs for the game, but, recent events have revealed that a planned story DLC for the game was in development at some point.

According to a former Rockstar developer, Joseph Rubino, Rockstar was working on a planned story DLC for GTA 5, however, it was canceled mid-development because GTA Online was generating significant revenue.

Importance: Rockstar should have continued with the DLC, as if it had been on par with the rest of the game, it could have been a major success alongside GTA Online, especially since many would be interested in Trevor’s storyline.

Joseph Rubino, who served as a senior camera artist and virtual cinematographer at Rockstar for six years, revealed this during an interview with the SanInPlay YouTube channel. Rubino claimed he worked on a DLC pack named “Agent Trevor” before it was canceled. Info datamined from the game in 2023 suggested that “Agent Trevor” was one of three canceled expansions, alongside “Zombie Apocalypse” and “Alien Invasion.”

The reason for the cancellation, according to Rubino, was the overwhelming financial success of GTA Online. He explained,

“When GTA Online came out, it was so much of a cash cow and people were loving it so much that it was hard to make an argument that a standalone DLC would out-compete that.”

Rubino expressed his frustration with the decision, stating, that it was a lot of reason for him being a little sour at that time, because he was really deep into the idea of the DLC and wanted to keep moving forward and finish it. He mentioned that the DLC was around half complete when it was canceled, but noted,

“A lot of that stuff did end up making it, I believe, into later iterations of GTA Online, I think, so it’s not like they wasted it. It was really, really good.”

Rubino’s account aligns with comments made by Trevor actor Steven Ogg in April. Ogg described the canceled DLC, saying,

“Trevor was going to be undercover, he was working with the feds. We did shoot some of that stuff with ‘James Bond Trevor’, where he’s still kind of a fuck-up, but he’s doing his best. Then it just disappeared and they never did it, they never followed up on it.”

The decision to cancel the story DLC in favor of focusing on GTA Online demonstrates how the game’s success in the online multiplayer space shifted Rockstar’s development priorities. However, we would have more than loved a story DLC giving us more from Trevor, however, that reality seems pretty unlikely in the future now since GTA 6 is releasing next year.

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