Should Rockstar Games revamp GTA Online’s approach to updates?

Rockstar Games' current approach to updates in GTA Online is working amazingly from a financial perspective.

There have been plenty of critics who have voiced their concerns over how much favoritism GTA Online gets from Rockstar. Some have even gone as far as to speculate that GTA Online's constant updates are partially the reason for the lack of GTA 6 news.

The most reasonable point to come out of these discussions is that Rockstar could divert the resources and attention given to GTA Online's updates to something like GTA 6. Having said that, GTA Online is immensely successful from a financial perspective. There isn't much of an incentive for Rockstar to change its current business model if it's working so superbly.

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Should GTA Online’s approach to updates be changed?

GTA Online was released in 2013 and still gets significant updates to this day (Image via Rockstar Games)

While a change of pace in updates could be nice, there is no need to completely delay GTA Online's updates or kill it outright to appease some vocal fans.

GTA Online was released in 2013 and still gets significant updates to this day. In some ways, that's outstanding. Most online games never live half as long as GTA Online has, and it doesn't seem like it'll slow down anytime soon.

Why some fans are getting annoyed with GTA Online

dont care release gta 6

— Dynamic (@313Dynamic) March 26, 2021

If Rockstar posts something about GTA Online on social media, there will always be somebody who complains about it or who wants the company to focus on GTA 6 instead.

Unsurprisingly, these random comments also tend to get more hearts than others (especially supportive ones).

please stop putting resources into this game and divert them to red dead or new game

— Gary from Vault 108 (@JosephBiden69) March 11, 2021

While detractors of GTA Online have many reasons to dislike Rockstar's undivided attention to the game, the company does have valid reasons to continue what it has been doing so far.

Mere annoyance isn't a valid enough reason to revamp Rockstar's approach to its updates.

Should Rockstar focus more on GTA 6 than GTA Online?

Rockstar Games can always slow down the stream of GTA Online updates to work on another title (Image via Film Daily)

Rockstar isn't a small video game company. Since it is one of the largest video game companies in the world, there would be no need to completely shut down GTA Online's updates just to work on another game.

In the worst-case scenario, Rockstar can slow the updates down as they did around the time Red Dead Redemption 2 was being worked on. This would be the best way to revamp GTA Online's current stream of updates.

Why Rockstar shouldn't revamp GTA Online's current update approach

GTA Online continues to make massive sums of money for Rockstar Games (Image via Rockstar Games)

From an economic standpoint, it wouldn't make sense to stall GTA Online's updates. The game is insanely successful, and the microtransactions involved help make it that way. While official numbers are difficult to find, the game has likely earned Rockstar over a billion dollars.

Aside from the economic standpoint, there are genuine fans of GTA Online who love to play the game. It doesn't matter if they're F2P or not; they just want to play GTA Online and experience its new content. Moreover, GTA Online still gets new players, despite being an online game that was released in 2013.

Knowing this, it wouldn't make sense for Rockstar to revamp a current business model that's been proven to work wonders.

The current model of updates

GTA Online gets minor updates quite frequently (Image via Rockstar Games)

GTA Online doesn't get major content updates that frequently. Something like the Cayo Perico Heist isn't released every week or month.

There are minor updates that happen more frequently, but these kinds of updates aren't that demanding for Rockstar. Something as simple as deciding which activities should give double money and RP isn't that code-intensive.

Unfortunately, some fans tend to complain no matter what is going on in the world of GTA Online.

Don't fix what isn't broken

Considering there is no official news on GTA 6, fans have every reason to be upset (Image via Rockstar Games)

Right now, the best thing for Rockstar to do in relation to GTA Online is to not alter a business model that's already earning them a ton of money. GTA 6 could earn Rockstar more money than GTA 5 ever did, but there's nothing wrong with milking a cash cow for a little longer from an economic perspective.

From an entertainment perspective, it is understandable that some fans are annoyed at GTA Online's constant stream of updates. Considering there is no official news on GTA 6, fans have every reason to be upset. However, there is no "one size fits all" solution to this sort of problem.