Grand Theft Auto 6will be the first new Rockstar Games release in eight years, and the firstGTAgame in thirteen, so it has a lot of room to modernize the franchise for today’s gaming audience. Of course, Rockstar’s style of writing and game design are unique in myriad ways, so audiences shouldn’t be too confident thatGTA 6will adopt 2020s gaming conventions, but there are a few that would be welcome.
There are certain technical elements ofGTA 6that could be brought in line with modern standards, for instance.Rockstar isn’t bringingGTA 6to PCat launch, which excludes it from a number of advanced features, but it would appear that gaming audiences have gradually been accepting the appearance of PC staples on consoles, like cursor-navigated menus and some rudimentary graphical settings. In light of this ostensible trend, Rockstar may want to consider another historically PC-only feature: official mod support.
The Case for Rockstar to Bring GTA 6 Modding to Consoles
GTA Will Be a Hot Target for the Modding Community
TheGrand Theft Autoseriesis about a lot of things, but perhaps chief among them is a sense of freedom: players don’t have to stick by a stringent set of rules much of the time. If they want to kill dozens of innocents, careen down a mountain on a sports bike, or enjoy a friendly game of tennis or bowling, they can do so with little impediment. The same can be said about Bethesda Game Studios games, which encourage audiences to have it their way. It’s no great surprise that these two franchises have especially active, vibrant modding communities.
But while Bethesda has implemented mod support on consoles for many of its games, Rockstar has yet to tear down the wall between console gamers and user-generated content. This leaves the likes ofGTA 5andRed Dead Redemption 2without mods on PC and Xbox, while their PC counterparts continue to expand with creative, helpful, and bizarre player-creations. Bethesda may have led the charge for AAA developers in the console modding space, but the practice is becoming more and more common, with big releases likeThe Witcher 3andBaldur’s Gate 3adding official mod supportfor their console ports. Again, these are games that shareGTA’s penchant for player freedom, so widespread, inclusive modding platforms simply make sense.
And of course, one mustn’t forget the aforementionedGTA 6PC releasedebacle: Rockstar announced thatGTA 6will not be coming to PC on launch day, and has yet to establish a release date or timeline for the game’s PC version. Giving modders some version of a “creation kit” forGTA 6, with the resources required to mod the game on consoles, could soften the blow of the game’s delayed PC release.
Rockstar Doesn’t Have to Bring GTA 6 Mod Support to Consoles On Day One
Naturally, it would be ideal forGrand Theft Auto 6to get modson Xbox and PlayStation straight away, but there are some potential reasons why Rockstar would shy away from this. WhileGTAis characterized by freedom in many ways, it’s also a rather linear and controlled cinematic experience; Rockstar may not want players to “spoil” their experience of the game’s campaign with game-or story-breaking mods. But wheneverGTA 6comes to PC, modding is going to happen regardless, so perhaps that would be a good time to launch a modding kit:GTA 6could get mod support whenever its PC version lands.
Grand Theft Auto 6
WHERE TO PLAY
Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.
