In an interview with the SanInPlay YouTube channel, Joe Robino, former senior camera artist and virtual cinematographer at Rockstar, confirmed that a GTA V story DLC was in the works. It would feature Trevor Philips in a central role. But the project was cancelled due to the popularity and money-making factor of GTA Online. Some of the DLC's elements even ended up in GTA Online, Robino says.

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Below are some excerpts from the interview:

A lot of the team went to do Red Dead Redemption 2 right away and I took on this other project that was a standalone DLC for GTA that never came out and it was kick ass. That was my thing. I was one of the main editors, camera artists, and on-stage stuff. We split our teams into two. I stayed on GTA Online and then this DLC, which Steven Ogg was a very important part of.

And then some of the team overlapped and went to RDR2 early on, and then we just kind of did this [flipped motion], because when that game got shelved, we spent so much money… a lot of that stuff though 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. But 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 outcompete that. I think looking back now you could probably do both. But that was a business decision they made. I was a little upset about that. That actually was a lot of the reason for me being a little sour at that time. Because I was like yo, WTF guys? This s**t’s awesome. Let’s keep going. Let’s finish this s**t.

This report corroborates with what Steven Ogg, the actor who played Trevor Philips, said in an interview. “Trevor was going to be undercover, he was working with the feds,” Ogg said. “We did shoot some of that stuff with ‘James Bond Trevor’, where he’s still kind of a f**k-up, but he’s doing his best. Then it just disappeared and they never did it, they never followed up on it.”

While we likely won't see the release of the DLC, would you have liked to see a story expansion for GTA V?

SOURCE

 

[thekarter104]

Because of one thing.
GTA online.. IT PRINTS MONEY!

 

[Lumpofcoal]

I'm probably one of the oddballs that prefered the singleplayer/campaign than online. So yeah, I would have liked a story expansion.

But make no mistake though, rockstar (or take2 for that matter) is just as fickle when it comes to online. The ironic case in point being RDR2's online which was quickly abandoned, so much so that gamers trolled it by voting it for the "labour of love" game award.

 

[codezer0]

I was pretty much laser focused on Saint's Row from 2, all through until, well... Everything that happened with the reboot. Just kind of realized that I didn't care for how rockstar crime games felt, or how evil the houser brothers were to everyone around them in particular.

Even by the time I had my fill of Saint's row 4, its dlc and Gat out of Hell, well, I think that was when I was gifted Yakuza 0, and got to experience THAT saga, at least with the main numbered games, up until 7.

Even now, going back to GTA 3 and Vice City is hard, because the originals have not aged well, especially on pc. And the less said about Rockstar's sanctioned remake, the better.

 

[CoolMe]

Uh.. how is this news? We knew that like 10 years ago (back in '14)..

 

[BraveDragonWolf]

But the project was cancelled due to the popularity and money-making factor of GTA Online.

In my head, it's funny in a way.

 

[Bladexdsl]

yeah why waste time and money on DLC when you can get morons to buy weapon packs?!

 

[SDA]

To me cancelling a DLC just because the online mode of a game is popular is just stupid.

I mean, I'd have lots of fun with the base game already!

 

[M7L7NK7]

To me cancelling a DLC just because the online mode of a game is popular is just stupid.

I mean, I'd have lots of fun with the base game already!

That's the point, the majority of people don't care about single player

 

[AxlSt00pid]

It's been known for years at this poin but good to hear official news about it

GTAO is also the reason why we got stuck with GTA V for 3 console generations (spanning 11 years), and I'm 10000% sure GTA VI will also be extremely focused in its online department and that's why I got no hype for it

 

[MaxiBash]

Just a thought of mine, wouldn't the assets for this DLC be part of that source code leak a while back? Figured people would've found it by now, but I guess not

 

[BigOnYa]

Is ironic, I just starting playing thru single player again this morning with the next gen version. Is cool. Nice no more loading times and 60fps.

 

[DuoForce]

Who ever wrote this article is using Internet Explorer, we've known this for a while now

 

[Noctosphere]

Ok, now that's what I call some "bullshit business". A product is producing a lot of money, so let's give up on all our other project, let's give up on giving our customers anything new and let's fire some employee who are now useless because of all that.

 

[x65943]

Just a thought of mine, wouldn't the assets for this DLC be part of that source code leak a while back? Figured people would've found it by now, but I guess not

Sounds like they barely developed the dlc, probably was in early planning stages when it got axed

As such likely few to zero assets ever made, let alone leaked

 

[The Catboy]

I am pretty sure everyone has already figured this out. It's obvious they want to just focus on GTA Online, which is also why 6 has taken so long

 

[Axido]

Even if they released a singleplayer DLC, GTA would be dead to me regardless. I couldn't care less about their focus on online modes. Also, I never liked those weird ragdoll effects they started adding in GTA IV and have used in all of their major games ever since. That being said, GTA San Andreas is still one of the best games ever made. It's sad that there's no sign of the VR port for Quest headsets actually being worked on.

 

[ertaboy356b]

I'm sure I read about this years ago.

 

[chr0m]

I couldn't give a crap about online gaming. Single player for life for me. Sadly I'm in the minority

 

[Wolfy]

Weird seeing this being brought up again since it's pretty old news even with some new details. What could've been is a wonder for older/retro titles, but this is right in line with the modern showings from big AAA companies so not a surprise.