What’s the problem with GTA? The fifth episode of the saga is the second best-selling game of all time. However, if you believe the trends on the net and in the hearts of the players, a great cheek has settled in relation to the franchise over the years. But not because of the quality of its episodes. They’re often excellent, but because of the treatment the saga, in a broader sense, receives from its owners. We are trying to analyze that today. Take out the Tec9s, let’s go for a walk.
The following is a transcript of the video script
The turning point
If we release this video today, of course, it’s because Rockstar and Take Two have just crossed the Rubicon with the famous GTA trilogy. This is the first time in its history that the publisher and developer duo has released a game that is not an exemplary quality problem and has therefore been heavily criticized by gamers. The trilogy is currently being massively bombed everywhere. On review sites, but also on Metacritic or Steam, real or supposed players do not hesitate to give it the minimum ratings in order to undermine the sale and scream their dissatisfaction. As if that wasn’t enough, Rockstar’s launcher went down for over 24 hours on PC just days after the game was released.
This dissatisfaction is very real as we said to JV in our review: The game, developed by Grove Street Games and published by Rockstar, suffers from many bugs and technical problems. And in the age of social media, it’s a monstrous evil buzz whose trilogy, sold for 60 dollars, would have gone well.
The rain that makes the game illegible, coupled with the fact that it doesn’t rain on the sea, makes the Switch version look pale compared to other versions and even the PS Vita edition from almost 10 years ago. The cutscenes were all bugged. The period fog that we miss because it’s damn empty.
The new edition of GTA 5
The concern is that this trilogy had to breathe new life into the series before serving up GTA 5 again, which many have already bought three times. Obviously, a game released on PS3, 360, then PS4, One, then PC, if we announce it on PS5 and Xbox Series, we’d better have the arguments to get people back to the box office . And the arguments, Rockstar usually doesn’t have too much of a problem finding them: The PS4 One re-released was pretty neat, the PC version was very clean and has been modified a few times since then, but we’ll get to that point in a few moments . . So with the announcement in June 2020, we’re starting to hope for a lot GTA 5 on PS5 and Xbox Series, 6 years after the last issuethat was on the pc.
Quite normal, the game has now developed into a juggernaut, a real cash cow and therefore deserves a decent new edition. Kind of the ultimate version before moving on. Take Two boss Strauss Zelnick has also confirmed this by reminding that Rockstar would not continue the legacy of GTA 5 by simply porting it to PS5 and Xbox Series. Aside from what we’ve seen on the trailers so far, it still looks like a simple port. It doesn’t look any better than the PC edition from 6 years ago. Suddenly it inevitably disappoints the players who were expecting something better and again they let you know: check out the dislikes on the various posts. In order to motivate open-world enthusiasts, it will of course be necessary to show a little more of the new side before the release, otherwise a radiant reception for this new edition is difficult to imagine. Because if everyone has a bit of a GTA 5 hatch, maybe it is time to move on.
The growing shadow of GTA 6
If we look at Rockstar’s schedules, we see a pretty worrying slowdown in productions over the past few years. It came out in 13 years: GTA 4 in 2008. Its two solo expansions in 2009. The following year: Red Dead Redemption in 2010, with its zombie DLC a few months later. 2011 LA Noire, 2012 Max Payne 3. 2013 GTA V, End of the Year Online. And from there everything slows down. In 2018, their giant Red Dead Redemption 2 released its online beta in the same year and nothing since then.
Rockstar still consists of 12 studios, more than 2000 employees and therefore a damn good squad to make sure the developments of RDR2 2018 were completed, then GTA 6 for at least 3 years full time. When we look at the release schedules, we get an announcement that is usually imminent. But we’ve been saying this for months and months, even years, with no further evidence other than alleged leaks, which we won’t be able to confirm until the game is revealed. People are getting impatient, happy about the smallest leak that is sure to make the rounds of the media and create even more waiting : The famous vicious circle that means that a studio preparing a highly anticipated title is put under heavy media pressure with every communication.
And especially on the communication side, Rockstar is used to mastering everything from start to finish, is a relatively secret studio and used to dazzling marketing. We remember that change to the Twitter banner, 100% red like the setting sun, that teased the upcoming announcement of Red Dead Redemption 2. It was awesome. And of course, Rockstar needs that kind of sparkle today to shine in players’ hearts again. Because we can’t say that Take-Two, the parent company, is the guy who promotes their community.
Punish instead of thanking
That gap between rock star and its community has also widened dramatically since 2015. Why ? Because Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar, didn’t really look cheap in the PC modding community. Over the months and years We’ve seen several waves of bans on amateur mods dedicated to GTA 5.
These are all tweaks and graphics improvements that people have come to expect from the PS5 and Xbox production versions, and the lack of which probably explains the wave of aversion to the trailers. However, these community-developed mods for gamers who represent free labor on behalf of Rockstar are not immune to Take Two strikes. When we see how much GTA RP reinvigorated GTA 5 sales on PC and literally created an in-game social game, we can say that Take-Two would like to thank their mod community for their dedication and incredible investment should, and completely free of charge. Perhaps they could even fund an official GTA-RP mode developed in collaboration with the valve-style heyday modding teams with Counter Strike. This would allow console gamers to benefit from it too, and it would pay off.
The product of an era?
In the end, we can’t help but think so Above all, GTA is the product of a completely unrestrained or even deeply transgressive era. It’s a portal to ultra-violence that is doing much less well today. And that without the many sexist, macho, racist and very political attitudes that the saga has always liked to portray and often criticized. We are already experiencing a form of censorship through this remaster of the GTA 3 trilogy, especially through the t-shirt of one of the NPCs the pattern is magically replaced in the new version. The original t-shirt represented the Confederate flag, a symbol of the defense of slavery and thus also of racism. What characterize a little more the NPC who wears it. This t-shirt now depicts a simple skull. Today, with the video game being watched more than ever and the creative duo behind the saga, the Houser Brothers, going their separate ways, it’s hard to believe that GTA 6 could be so unbridled can like never before. GTA 4 or, to a lesser extent, GTA 5, the spelling of which was a bit smoother. Whether this concern is partly responsible for the very slow development of the sixth opus cannot be said at the moment, but it is undoubtedly a parameter to consider when writing and designing GTA 6. What a little more the expectations around the title, but also the fears crystallize.
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