On 9 December 2024, Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier published a report providing the most authoritative confirmation to date that Grand Theft Auto VI will ship with a substantial multiplayer component patterned on Grand Theft Auto Online. The article, which centred on missed internal development deadlines and the game's impact on the broader 2025 release calendar, stated plainly that GTA VI "will feature a significant online mode" designed to sell in-game content and generate revenue "for years into the future" (Schreier, 2024). Because Schreier had previously been correct about the game's two-protagonist structure, Vice City setting, and Trailer 1 release window, the disclosure was treated by the industry press as effectively confirmatory rather than speculative. The reporting establishes three linked facts: GTA VI will have a dedicated online mode; that mode is conceived as a long-tail, live-service successor to GTA Online; and the title's monetisation model will rest on in-game purchases sustained over a multi-year content roadmap, replicating the formula that kept GTA V commercially relevant for over a decade.
Schreier's December 2024 piece was framed primarily as a story about how publishers across the industry were holding back announcements to avoid colliding with GTA VI's window. Embedded within that framing, however, was an unambiguous statement about the online component. According to Bloomberg's reporting, GTA VI has missed "multiple deadlines" internally, yet Take-Two continued to project a Fall 2025 release, and a "significant online mode" was a confirmed pillar of the launch product (Dexerto, 2024; RockstarINTEL, 2024). The phrasing "akin to Grand Theft Auto Online" - subsequently used in Wikipedia's source-aggregated summary of the reporting - captures the structural model: persistent online world, microtransaction-driven economy, and ongoing content drops (Wikipedia, 2025).
GTA Online has earned an estimated $8 billion-plus across its lifespan and remains, more than twelve years after launch, a major contributor to Take-Two's bookings. Schreier's reporting therefore reframes GTA VI not simply as a sequel but as the next platform for that recurring-revenue model. TweakTown's coverage of the Bloomberg report led with this commercial framing, observing that the online mode is engineered to "generate revenue for years into the future" and that Rockstar's strategy depends on the online sequel reproducing - and ideally surpassing - GTA Online's longevity (TweakTown, 2024). The implication is that the multiplayer mode is not an ancillary feature but a defining strategic asset.
Secondary outlets, including Dexerto, RockstarINTEL, GamingBible, and Yahoo/Tech, all treated the Bloomberg disclosure as the primary source and uniformly used the "significant online mode" formulation when relaying the story (Dexerto, 2024; RockstarINTEL, 2024). The consistency of language across outlets reflects how directly each publication leaned on Schreier's report rather than independent sources. GamingBible additionally noted ongoing community speculation that Rockstar's pre-launch upgrades to GTA Online's back-end infrastructure - including higher-quality asset streaming - foreshadow the technical foundations for the GTA VI online platform (GamingBible, 2024).
The reporting confirms existence and scale but leaves several structural questions unresolved. It is unclear whether the new online mode will launch simultaneously with the single-player campaign or follow at a later date, as occurred with GTA V and GTA Online in 2013. It is also unclear whether the existing GTA Online service will be retired, merged with, or continue to run in parallel to the GTA VI online mode (Yahoo Tech, 2024). Schreier's reporting does not directly address rumoured role-play creator tools, though such features have been the subject of separate leaks and patent filings outside the scope of the Bloomberg article (Dexerto, 2024).
The confirmation reshapes expectations along several axes. First, it signals that GTA VI is being built as a live-service title from day one, with monetisation infrastructure presumably integrated into the core architecture rather than bolted on post-launch. Second, the emphasis on a multi-year revenue tail justifies, from Take-Two's perspective, the aggressive marketing spend and the protracted development cycle reported by Schreier. Third, the disclosure recalibrates competitor strategy: as Bloomberg observed, rival publishers are timing their own releases around GTA VI specifically because the online mode's anticipated player draw is expected to dominate engagement metrics for months, if not years, after launch (Dexerto, 2024). Finally, the confirmation invites scrutiny over content moderation, microtransaction design, and player retention practices, all of which have attracted regulatory and consumer-advocacy attention in the GTA Online era.
Schreier's 9 December 2024 Bloomberg report is the most credible public confirmation that GTA VI will include a substantial, GTA Online-style multiplayer mode designed as a long-term revenue platform. Cross-referenced by RockstarINTEL, Dexerto, TweakTown, GamingBible, and Wikipedia's sourced summary, the reporting establishes the online mode as a strategic pillar rather than a secondary feature. The disclosure aligns Rockstar's commercial trajectory with the live-service template that GTA Online pioneered, while leaving meaningful operational details - launch timing relative to the campaign, the fate of legacy GTA Online, and creator tooling - for future reporting cycles.
Dexerto. (2024) GTA 6 missed "multiple deadlines" but 2025 release on track with GTA Online 2. Available at: https://www.dexerto.com/gta/gta-6-missed-multiple-deadlines-but-2025-release-on-track-with-gta-online-2-3002395/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
GamingBible. (2024) GTA 6 Online teaser has fans seriously hyped. Available at: https://www.gamingbible.com/news/gta-6-online-teaser-926741-20241210 (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
RockstarINTEL. (2024) GTA 6 Missed Release Date Targets Says Report Sharing Inside Information Into Rockstar Games. Available at: https://rockstarintel.com/gta-6-missed-release-date-targets-new-report-online-mode/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Schreier, J. (2024) Grand Theft Auto 6 Release Date Will Decide Much of the 2025 Game Calendar. Bloomberg News, 9 December. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-09/-gta-6-release-date-will-decide-much-of-the-2025-game-calendar (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
TweakTown. (2024) GTA 6 will have a 'significant online mode' to generate revenue for years into the future. Available at: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/102080/gta-6-will-have-significant-online-mode-to-generate-revenue-for-years-into-the-future/index.html (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia. (2025) Grand Theft Auto VI. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_VI (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Yahoo Tech. (2024) GTA 6 Will Be 'Less Crude' Towards Minorities - Report. Available at: https://tech.yahoo.com/gaming/articles/gta-6-less-crude-towards-125623614.html (Accessed: 14 May 2026).