GTA Online draws crowds, shatters records with Diamond Casino & Resort update

By Aaron Mamiit August 4, 2019

The free Diamond Casino & Resort update for GTA Online drew the game’s biggest crowds since the online component of Grand Theft Auto V launched in October 2013.

Rockstar Games did not provide specific numbers, but the developer and publisher told The Hollywood Reporter that the highly anticipated update delivered the biggest player numbers for GTA Online for a single day on July 23, and for a single week from July 23 to July 29.

The Diamond Casino & Resort update adds new narrative elements to GTA Online, focused on gangster Tao Cheng, The Diamond’s head of operations Agatha Baker, and a plan to protect the casino from a hostile takeover by the Duggans, a ruthless Texan petrochemical family that is looking to expand its business.

In addition to finally opening the casino, which has stood as a vacant lot with an “opening soon” sign since Grand Theft Auto 5 was released in September 2013, the update contains six new story missions and several other new competitive modes. It also allows players to buy and customize a private penthouse suite, which also functions as a social space where they can host parties.

Shattering player records through a free content update is unheard of for a six-year-old game, but GTA Online continues its impressive run. Grand Theft Auto V has shipped 110 million copies globally and holds the distinction as the highest-grossing media title ever with $6 billion in revenue in its lifetime.

Also impressive is that Rockstar Games was able to release the Diamond Casino & Resort update for GTA Online amid the ongoing updates for Red Dead Redemption 2 and its online component, Red Dead Online.

Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online remain popular after six years, but fans are already looking forward to Grand Theft Auto 6. Recent rumors claim that the game is in the works and that it will feature multiple cities including Liberty City and Vice City.

The leak also claimed that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be a next-generation title, as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will not be able to run it due to memory restrictions. Rockstar Games is also said to have big plans for the game’s online component.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributor

Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…

Gaming

We need to see these 3 things in Grand Theft Auto 6’s first trailer

gta 6 first trailer speculation v

It’s almost time. After over a decade of waiting, we’ll finally get our first look at the next Grand Theft Auto game sometime this December. When it arrives, the Grand Theft Auto 6 reveal will be one of the biggest video game industry announcements of the year, regardless of what Rockstar Games shows. Despite that, there are specific things that the GTA 6 reveal trailer needs to tell us to live up to its hype.

Although Rockstar has said little about the project before now, GTA 6 might be one of the most anticipated games ever, and it’s following up one of the most successful individual video games of all time. Speculation on where this game will be set, what it will be about, and what innovations it will bring to the medium have been rampant for years. I know this because I’ve played a part in this hype cycle myself -- and this very article is adding to it right now.

Gaming

Grand Theft Auto 6 is getting its first trailer sooner than you think

Trevor firing an assault rifle in GTA 5.

After a decades-long wait, Grand Theft Auto 6 is finally making its formal debut. Rockstar announced that the first trailer for the anticipated open-world game will drop in early December.

It's no stretch to call Grand Theft Auto 6 the most anticipated video game of all time. It's been 10 years since the mega-successful Grand Theft Auto 5 launched and fans have been itching for news on a sequel since. That impatience boiled over last year when Rockstar suffered a major security breach that saw early footage from the game leaking. Now the studio is finally ready to reveal the game on its own terms.

Gaming

Rockstar Games’ co-founder just formed an ‘absurd’ new studio

A man drives away in a boat with stolen money in Grand Theft Auto 5 art.

Dan Houser, a co-founder of Rockstar Games and one of the people behind the creation of series like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, has unveiled his new studio, Absurd Ventures.

Dan Houser was a stalwart figure at Rockstar Games since its founding and had a hand in the creative aspects of pretty much every game in the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, along with other titles like Bully and Max Payne 3. Following an "extended break" following the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, as well as some controversy surrounding some reported issues with the game's creative development, Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive announced that Houser had left the company in early 2020. He's had a relatively low-profile since then outside of serving on the board of a blockchain company, but now looks to be fully invested in Absurd Ventures, a company he technically founded in 2021.
Absurd Ventures is finally being revealed more publicly now, and Houser did so with an intentionally absurd announcement trailer and website with the tagline "Storytelling, Philanthropy, Ultraviolence." According to a tweet by Geoff Keighley, the actual main goal of Absurd Ventures is "building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a diverse variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation, video games and other interactive content, books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts."
Absurd Ventures
It seems like Houser wants to make a creative think tank that can craft ideas that are then realized in a variety of creative mediums. It doesn't seem quite like any other game developer or movie studio out there, so it will be very interesting to see what the minds at Absurd Ventures are eventually able to come up with.