In a surprise to almost no one, a former Rockstar employee claims that planned Grand Theft Auto V story DLC was canceled because of the blockbuster success of GTA Online. It was “so much of a cash cow” that a Trevor-focused expansion was reportedly shut down after already being in the middle of production.
Joseph Rubino, who worked at Rockstar from 2010-16 as a senior camera artist and virtual cinematgrapher, spoke to YouTuber SanInPlay about the scrapped Trevor DLC project, per VGC. “What happened was when GTA Online came out, it was so much of a cash cow and people were loving it so much that it was hard to make an argument that a standalone DLC would out-compete that,” Rubino said.
As one of the people working on the DLC, Rubino admitted he was “a little sour at the time, because I was like, ‘Yo, what the f**k guys, this sh*t’s awesome, let’s keep going, let’s finish this sh*t.'” The developer has worked at Microsoft and Amazon since Rockstar, contributing to projects like Forza Motorsport and The Outer Worlds 2.
This corroborates Trevor voice actor Steve Ogg revealing earlier this year that GTA V could have had a James Bond-like story DLC focused on his character. Ogg mentioned that he had already recorded lines for the expansion in which Trevor went undercover. Dataminers had previously discovered Agent Trevor references in game files.
GTA V is one of the best-selling games of all time, now surpassing 200 million copies sold. The game–thanks to GTA Online–also continues to be one of the most-played titles on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
Looking ahead, GTA VI is planned for a Fall 2025 release window. In May, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that he felt “highly confident” about that launch timing.
