For what was expected to be a huge year for GTA 6 and Rockstar Games actually became more of the same with the usual ups and downs. From a redemption story to closing a long-delayed project, there’s still plenty to look back on for Rockstar Games in 2024.
It Wasn’t The Year For GTA 6 Fans
The Rockstar Games community started 2024 with a lot of excitement and hope. Rockstar finally revealed GTA 6 to the world with a record-breaking trailer that amassed over 228 million views on YouTube. It marked the beginning of a new era for the company and entertainment in general. This product created by thousands of artists seeks to redefine what a video game can be and it is the most anticipated game of all time.
Fans knew it would likely be several months before more details or screenshots arrived. It would very likely take around 11-12 months before the second trailer would be released. The year of 2024 would continue the end of GTA VI information project, so fans thought. Rockstar Games has remained absolutely silent since the trailer came out in December 2023. Not a single word about the game has come from them in 2024. This is unprecedented.
The only official news we got was from their parent company, Take-Two Interactive. The publisher narrowed the release window from just 2025 to Fall 2025, an undisclosed delay from earlier in 2025.
Despite the lack of any real updates, hype continues to thrive. Viral memes and just constant talk about the game keeps it on everyone’s mind. Rockstar had the game marketed for them all year, for free. Countless theories have been made and spread far and wide. With the game apparently still on track to release in Fall 2025, we should hear something soon. Maybe even a delay until early 2026 if we’re unlucky.
Rockstar As A Company In 2024
In April, Rockstar Games required developers to start working in the office for a few days a week rather than being away entirely. Various reasons were cited by Rockstar higher up but the employees subject to these changes raised concerns. This included how it might affect the development of GTA VI. This happened when GTA VI entered the final stages of development. A labor union criticized Rockstar’s policy change publicly.
In a new initiative, Rockstar celebrated GTA RP Server on FiveM with a cash giveaway for GTA Online. It’s been over a year since the studio bought the FiveM developers. We saw how the relationship of the two groups grew during 2024.
Rockstar Games also had a section of a museum exhibit dedicated to them in 2024. They had various parts of their history, artwork and more from their various franchises. The most interesting part was new pieces of Red Dead Redemption 2 concept art. You can check more information about this personal screen here. More recently, Rockstar Games announced a long-term sponsorship of a young boxer. This is yet another venture in the world of sports by the game company.
In terms of sales, it was another exceptional year for GTA V and Red Dead 2. Grand Theft Auto V has now sold over 205 million copies since launch, but sales did seem to slow down a bit. Red Dead Redemption 2 meanwhile reached 67 million copies sold.
GTA Online Will Never Stop
A lot has happened in GTA Online this year. Rockstar has given us some new content drops with some really interesting bits but also some people’s interest must have waned as they wait for the next iteration of GTA Online. The year started off hurting a handful of gamers with the removal of the Rockstar Editor on PS4 and Xbox One. This was necessary because Rockstar still has tens of millions of players in last generation and wants to keep giving them content.
The Cluckin’ Bell Farm Raid heist released in March to a warm reception from the community. You could even unlock CJ’s classic outfit from GTA San Andreas. The big summer update was Bottom Dollar Bounties which introduced new bounty hunting missions and dispatch jobs and more. The dripfeed even included the return of pizza delivery missions as well.
As with every Halloween, Rockstar is making this the biggest and most interactive event of the year. This year was particularly special. Players could travel to North Yankton and participate in a limited time zombie Ludendorff Cemetery Zombie Survival Mission. It was a huge hit with players.
We’ve had a few community challenges as well including the Survival and the return of Theft Month. Unfortunately, the community failed the Heist Challenge, a first for the GTA Online community. The 2023 target was $4 billion while 2024 was $20 billion. This led to the players being shorted by a few billion. Rockstar extended the challenge to give fans more time to earn the rewards.
Alongside the announcement of the expected winter update titled Agents of Sabotage, Rockstar also shared that the PC version of GTA V would receive the next gen feature set in 2025. It took a few years, but PC players will soon be able to get those nice updates. .
One of the most unexpected things to happen to GTA Online in years is that Rockstar has given it a new anti-cheat. This addition reduced the amount of free mod menus affecting the PC version of GTA Online. It definitely helped! That said, Rockstar disabled support for Linux and Steam Deck with this update. Many players were upset and stopped playing the game. GTA V has always been one of the 20 most played games on Steam Deck every month. Since then, it has not made it into those charts.
GTA+ Changed
GTA+ turned 2 had another big year not only in content but also subscribers. It was revealed that the monthly membership saw a 35% increase year on year, which is pretty impressive for something that was met with such anger at launch.
There was also a change in benefits. More classic Rockstar Games titles have been added to the subscription. Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire and Bully are all now part of GTA+ adding value despite a price hike in June.
Rockstar Finally Delivers Red Dead Redemption On PC
Red Dead Redemption 2 started 2024 with an award win. Winning it 5 years after it first came out, Rockstar’s game has gone from strength to strength in terms of sales over the past two years. These new players voted it to win the “Labor of Love” award. However, fans of Red Dead Online were quite upset with the award given to their game.
While the game didn’t get any new content in 2024, there were ongoing event months and a few updates. These fixed longstanding issues and improved the game’s graphics settings and more. Although Rockstar did take away some options for player created content and on Social Club.
It took almost 15 years but 2024 saw the release of Red Dead Redemption on PC. It was leaked during 2024 by Rockstar themselves and other partners of theirs. It was a waiting game but several months wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things. PC gamers have been waiting for over a decade now.
Once the game was finally playable on PC, it was a joy. The port made by Double Eleven Studios was mostly excellent. It did everything it should have: bringing the masterpiece to PC largely untouched but with some modernization for current PC standards.
Max Payne Remake Full Steam Ahead
We learned a lot about the upcoming Max Payne 1&2 Remake during 2024. First, we got a look at what could be the first piece of art from the upcoming collection. Later, Remedy revealed that the Remake’s budget would be around the same size as Alan Wake 2’s.
Max Payne 1&2 Remake has also entered full production. That means we’re getting ever closer to seeing something of it in 2025. Although, it’s not a given. Based on Remedy’s transparent progress report and with a budget as big as Alan Wake 2, we could see a full release in late 2026 or early 2027.
The most recent update we have on Remedy’s game is that they are meeting Rockstar’s high expectations and it has hit major milestones.
One strange and prominent story from 2024 was when Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two got into a legal dispute with Remedy over its logo. This created quite a stir online. Fortunately, this was a simple formality and there was nothing to see here.
The Controversial Trilogy Finally Fixed?
In late 2021, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition was released to industry-wide condemnation for various reasons. This port of previously ported mobile versions contained game-breaking bugs, style changes, and incorrect A-upscaled artwork.
New mobile versions for iOS and Android were announced back in 2021 but were delayed without updates until the end of 2023. Those versions were mostly well received and even had improvements over the console and PC iterations. These mobile ports have been a huge hit for Netflix, which has had the trilogy on its subscription service for the past year. It was announced a few months ago that more than 36 million downloads of these games have been made since launch.
Then to everyone’s surprise, a major new update was made to the console and PC versions. Not only did it bring fixes seen in the iOS and Android versions, but most of the game’s issues were also resolved. Hundreds of improvements have been made in one of the biggest updates seen to a GTA game. The original developers, Grove Street Games, have apparently been fired by Rockstar, but their CEO took to Twitter to share his side.
GTA San Andreas VR Death Finally Confirmed
Fans have been eagerly waiting for the release of GTA San Andreas VR, which was announced by Mark Zuckerberg in 2021. Since then, Rockstar has never even acknowledged the project and Meta only started giving non-positive non-answers in the past year. It took almost 3 years but Meta officially confirmed that they have delayed indefinitely. This put an end to speculation and upset fans.
It’s a Long Way
When you look back at 2024 and Rockstar Games, you can see that a lot happened without GTA VI at all. This could be GTA Online’s final full year without GTA VI as the focus. Maybe not. It’s all up in the air right now. Development of any game is complex and challenging. More for the game that will redefine what a game is and what entertainment can do. This is something that has never been done before and the ambition takes time. It might take a few more months before it’s ready for the tens of millions of players on day one. The wait will be worth it, says Take-Two’s CEO.
The fact that for 11 years in GTA Online, still selling and making money is pretty crazy. It is still routinely in the top 5 most played games on Xbox and PlayStation every week and month. Let that sink in. As GTA VI continues to develop, Rockstar will continue to add to GTA Online. We’ll see a few more pieces of content in 2025 much like 2024. What else is in store? It’s Rockstar after all. They are full of surprises.
On a more personal note, I’d like to thank all of our readers for their time in 2024. As a site, we’ve welcomed twice the amount of users than 2023. Millions of people in fact! And half of our viewers last year were in December; due to the GTA VI trailer and The Chop Shop DLC explosion. It’s hard to believe we were able to reach so many new people mostly for an 11 year old game. We’ve been doing this for over 11 years now and we can’t wait to keep talking about GTA and Rockstar. It would also be appreciated if you could fill in this survey help make 2025 an even greater year.
For all Rockstar Games news in 2025, stay tuned to RockstarINTEL.
