One Staple of Grand Theft Auto Online is a Gold Mine for GTA 6

Highlights

• The business system introduced in GTA Online could be a successful addition to GTA 6, adding depth to gameplay.
• GTA 6 could potentially feature player-run businesses in its single-player mode, offering new ways to engage with the game world.
• Alternatively, players could be allowed to invest in legitmate companies purely to make some extra money on the side during the story mode.

Grand Theft Auto Online has been an absolute juggernaut of not just the video game industry, but the entire world of entertainment. Released in October 2013, two weeks after the base game, Grand Theft Auto Online gave players an experience unlike any other at the time, delivering a gigantic open-world sandbox for players across the world to mess around in together. Though it was a little barren on launch, GTA Online began receiving fairly consistent updates from Rockstar, with each one adding new vehicles, weapons, and missions. And though all of it could be accessed via grinding for in-game currency, it’s much easier for players to just buy Shark Cards.

Over the last decade, Grand Theft Auto Online has apparently made around $8 billion in revenue, being far and away the most profitable entertainment product ever made. It’s only natural, then, that Rockstar will probably want to carry the success of GTA Online into its next mainline entry. And while there’s plenty that a potential Grand Theft Auto 6 multiplayer mode could learn from GTA Online, there’s a lot it could teach GTA 6‘s single-player as well.

Grand Theft Auto Online’s Business System Could Work Well in GTA 6

How Businesses Work in Grand Theft Auto Online

Originally launched as part of the Bikers DLC update, Grand Theft Auto Online added businesses all the way back in 2016, allowing players to set up a consistent means of earning passive income. The first set of businesses released were the Motorcycle Clubs, allowing players to set up a documentary forgery office, a meth lab, a weed farm, or a few other criminal ventures. Once the player has their club’s location picked out, has their first warehouse, and has set up their first business venture, they can then start earning in-game cash by delivering their goods once the product is ready.

Over the next few years, Rockstar would add to Grand Theft Auto Online‘s business systems quite a bit. Both special cargo and vehicle cargo warehouses were added to GTA Online, along with an update that allowed players to become the CEO of their own business, and eventually, nightclubs and underground bunkers were added to the game. All of these functioned pretty much the same, requiring players to keep an eye on the business’ stock and ship products once they were ready to be sold.

How Businesses Could Be Expanded in Grand Theft Auto 6

Businesses have become a staple feature of Grand Theft Auto over the last seven years or so since their introduction in GTA Online, and there’s plenty of room for Grand Theft Auto 6 to double down on the mechanic, even in its single-player campaign. Taking place in Vice City, GTA 6‘s setting would be perfectly suited to a vast range of potential player-run businesses, and there are two main ways Rockstar could implement the feature into the game’s single-player mode.

The first way is by making businesses play a major role in Grand Theft Auto 6‘s story mode. While fans only know a little about Lucia and Jason’s upcoming story, it seems like there’s room there for the Bonny and Clyde-like duo to use their money to start building a criminal enterprise, one that would see players invest in new businesses across Vice City, and have to reach certain milestones to progress the main narrative. This has the potential to immerse players into GTA 6‘s world far more than any previous entry has, using the core business concept to introduce plot beats and character arcs naturally over time without the use of mission markers.

Alternatively, Grand Theft Auto 6 could simply add businesses as side content for the game’s single-player mode. Here, players could invest in a side hustle and slowly build it up over time, with the primary reward for doing so not being main story content, but instead new weapon and vehicle unlocks. Or, players could be given the option to invest in a legitimate business, which would simply yield monetary rewards.