Rockstar explains why there was no single-player GTA V DLC

''As a company we love single-player more than anything, and believe in it absolutely.''

Ever wondered why Grand Theft Auto V never spawned single-player downloadable content in the way its predecessor did? According to Rockstar director of design Imran Sarwar, it was down to three core things.

Speaking to Game Informer in an interview largely about the success of GTA Online, Sarwar explained that the sheer completeness of the GTA V campaign was a large factor, as well as availability of resources.

"No, it was not really a conscious decision, it’s just what happened," he said.

"We would love to do more single-player add-ons for games in the future. 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.

"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. And then there are other games – in particular Red Dead Redemption II.

"The combination of these three factors means for this game, we did not feel single-player expansions were either possible or necessary, but we may well do them for future projects."

Future projects, eh? We'd certainly love to see add-ons for things like RDR II and the next GTA, whenever that happens, but Sarwar's right - we certainly didn't finish GTA V and immediately feel short-changed by the depth of single-player content.

Of course, the huge success of GTA Online must have made the non-decision a little easier. GTA V's sprawling online mode has received countless updates since launch in 2013, and despite a slow first year, has subsequently become one of the most popular shared-world online games on console, with ever-rising player numbers, to the extent that GTA V remains a top seller to this day.

Editor-in-Chief

Chris is the captain of the good ship AllGamers, which would explain everything you're seeing here. Get in touch to talk about work or the $6 million Echo Slam by emailing chris.higgins@allgamers.com or finding him on Twitter. 

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