GTA Online was originally conceived as a role-playing game and was supposed to come out much earlier — leak

A recent leak revealed that GTA Online was conceived by Rockstar back in 2001 and was originally more focused on role-playing gameplay. Although the game was not released until 2013, the concept had been in development for more than a decade.

According to leaked documents, GTA Online could have been released back in 2001 as part of Grand Theft Auto 3. The early version focused heavily on the role-playing component: players could join various factions, choose roles, and complete associated tasks. For example, one of the roles was working as a police officer. Players could arrest others, use service weapons, and drive official vehicles, but were required to follow strict rules. Violations led to dismissal or demotion.

An interesting mechanic was the participation of arrested players in court, where NPC judges handed down verdicts, influencing the outcome of events. Each faction owned “headquarters” (such as a restaurant for the mafia or an office for the yakuza) and possessed unique skills: lockpicking, evaluating stolen goods, disguise, etc.

These elements allowed players to interact with each other much more deeply than in the current version of GTA Online. For example, instead of selling stolen goods to an NPC, one could turn to another player, risking being scammed. There was also a “whistleblowing” system where players could warn others about a dishonest player.

Many ideas from the early GTA Online were later implemented in mods such as FiveM and RP servers. In the future, Rockstar might introduce role-playing elements into GTA 6 Online, especially after acquiring the FiveM team. This could improve support for RP servers, including console versions.

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Cover image author: Rockstar Games. Cover image source: ComicBook