Arabic
The recent major update to GTA Online has reignited players’ excitement as the iconic character Michael returns to the forefront after years of absence. The update included not just a token appearance but a clear hint about the official ending of the three GTA 5 endings, which opened a wide door of discussion within the series’ community.
But what seemed to some to be a sudden or random addition turned out to be part of a long-planned plan.
According to what Ben revealed on the X platform, the files associated with the A Safehouse in the Hills update indicate a development date of approximately September 23, 2024. This discovery confirms that work on the update began long before its release, negating the idea that it was improvised or quickly prepared content.
This revelation has sparked a wave of speculation within the GTA Online community as some players believe that the update was meant to be bigger and bigger than what was actually released and may have been planned to be the last major update for the game before the launch of GTA 6.
A number of followers suggest that the postponement of GTA 6 prompted Rockstar to redistribute the content so that the update is divided or released in stages in order to keep players active within GTA Online during the long waiting period.
This hypothesis supports an idea that has been circulating for years that Rockstar is using GTA Online as an indirect testing environment for some systems and ideas before applying them more broadly or more sophisticatedly in GTA 6. Although the technical leap expected in the upcoming game will be huge, continuing to support GTA Online and turning it into a fertile ground for experiments remains a smart move from the studio.
