GTA V Single-Player DLC Not “Necessary” According To Rockstar Games

Grand Theft Auto V is still raking in mountains of cash for Rockstar Games thanks to its massively popular online multiplayer mode. However, many fans of the game were hoping for the developers to show the single-player mode some love with DLCs. They never got their wish throughout the game’s four years of existence. Apparently, the developers simply did not think it was necessary.

This revelation came via a Game Informer interview with Imran Sarwar, GTA V’s director of design. While the Rockstar developer expressed his supposed love for single-player as well as that of his peers, they apparently did not have the resources or the time to create a DLC for the story mode. This is despite the fact that the company has been cranking out free DLC for multiplayer nonstop.

“As a company we love single-player more than anything, and believe in it absolutely – for storytelling and a sense of immersion in a world, multiplayer games don’t rival single-player games,” Sarwar said. “With GTA V, the single-player game was absolutely massive and very, very complete. It was three games in one. The next-gen versions took a year of everyone’s time to get right, then the online component had a lot of potential, but to come close to realizing that potential also sucked up a lot of resources. The combination of these three factors means for [GTA V], we did not feel single-player expansions were either possible or necessary.”

While Sarwar’s words do go a long way towards explaining part of the reason why a single-player DLC for GTA V was never released, it is still a little hard to accept given how profitable the online multiplayer mode has been. As Gamespot notes, Take-Two Interactive has been reticent in releasing specific revenue details, but earnings reports have always identified GTA V Online as a major source of profit.

This is due to all the microtransactions built into the mode, which would be majorly shady if implemented on single-player. Does it really sound farfetched to suggest that Take-Two simply did not want a single-player DLC because it would not be as profitable?