Rockstar Games’ GTA 6 is almost here. After a decade of waiting, the upcoming open-world crime game is just over a week away and players will soon be able to experience the series’ biggest map ever… on console at least.
What isn’t coming on launch, though, is the new version of GTA Online. While some have teased that the online multiplayer component of the new Grand Theft Auto isn’t too far away, Rockstar has not even announced the existence of its online component… although we all know it’s coming eventually.
At the time of writing, the entirety of GTA 6’s massive 212GB install has not been datamined, but some of the game has been. While we don’t have the full picture as of yet, dataminers have discovered that, similarly to modern Call of Duty titles, Rockstar’s latest game features a shared base installation feature which should allow for single-player and online modes to function without each other.
As spotted by TexFuz2, story content is separated from the core game” in GTA 6’s install. As such, Online assets would not require the game’s single-player to be installed, and single-player would not require online to be installed.
Of course, the two do share assets. Not only is the main game world vey likely (albeit not confirmed) shared between the two, but so would weapons, vehicles, NPCs, clothing items, and other assets. However, if you’re playing online, you would not be downloading the heaps of data required for single-player missions, story moments, and other activities.
This is the direct opposite of how GTA V works. While the 2013 predecessor is still smaller than GTA 6 in install size with both single-player and online multiplayer installed, it requires all of the data to be installed to boot up any aspect of the game. (Some mods on PC have heavily reduced this by axing specific files, but it’s still a large install.)
While this will end up reducing the size of GTA 6 for players who only want single-player or only want multiplayer, either version of the game will still be a massive install. However, in a world where memory prices are only increasing, it makes sense that Rockstar would allow players to save as much space as possible, especially if they hope players will keep the game installed for the next decade.
