Former Rockstar Games Developer Reveals Reason Behind GTA V Story DLC Cancellation

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GTA V’s Story DLC packs were canceled for the reason we all assumed, but now we’ve learned even more about them. In a new interview, a former Rockstar Games developer has revealed this information about the planned single-player expansions.

The former Rockstar employee is Joe Rubino. He worked at Rockstar Games for several years on the story of GTA V and Max Payne 3 in the camera department. He has just participated in an interview for the YouTube channel SanInPlay, spotted by GTA Focal.

Joe starts by saying that most of the team focused on Red Red Redemption 2 while he focused on GTA Online, but he also took on a standalone GTA V expansion that kicked ass. He was one of the lead camera artists on that project.

Although it was intended as a fun DLC, half the game was finished and a lot of money was spent on it. Rockstar management eventually shelved it for GTA Online content, as Joe explains:

“What happened was that when GTA Online came out, it was such a cash cow and people loved it so much that it was hard to make the case that a standalone DLC could top it.”

Rubino goes on to say, “I think in hindsight I would say you could probably do both, but it was a business decision that they made and I was upset about it.” When the Trevor DLC was canceled, Joe said he was a little bitter about the decision.

I was a little upset about it and that’s actually a big part of why I was a little bitter at the time. I was like, “Hey, what the hell guys, this is great, let’s move on, let’s get this over with.”

Joe Rubino

Rock Star Secrets

Mr. Rubino also explained that the film crew’s office was right next door to Rockstar boss Sam Houser’s office. It was a secure section of Rockstar’s New York office. Joe explains that when you had a pass to get into their building, you had to go through three levels of security. Plus, there was an extra level of security for their offices. They were considered more secretive because the film crew was always working further away than everyone else in the company.

Information leaks

This information adds to the pile of things we’ve recently learned about GTA V’s canceled Story DLC. Over the years, code in the GTA V files has revealed that we’ll see DLC for each of the main characters, including Agent Trevor.

Just a few months ago, Steven Ogg, who plays Trevor in GTA V, said that his DLC would have seen Trevor pose as a secret agent. It was partially mocaped by Steven. He added: “He just disappeared and was never used and they never followed up on it, but I thought it would be cool, like he was hired.” The general idea was reworked in The Doomsday Heist for GTA Online. The Diamond Casino Heist update was also adapted from the single-player content.

Additionally, last month we got our first listen to a piece of music created for the Agent Trevor DLC. The track is called Clifford and was made by Sweet Valley. You can read more about this piece of music created for the canned DLC here.

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