A few days ago, Rockstar Games stated in a job listing on its website that Grand Theft Auto 6 would have the largest launch in video game history. Coming from any other developer, this would be an incredibly bold claim to make, but in GTA 6' s case, this seems pretty likely. Grand Theft Auto 5 is, as many players may know, the most successful entertainment product of all time. It single-handedly generated more revenue than any book, movie, or TV show ever made, and to this day, it still shows up in the monthly best-selling games charts on both the PlayStation and Xbox storefronts. It seems reasonable to assume, then, that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be just as successful, if not more so, than its predecessor.
A big reason as to why Grand Theft Auto 5 is considerably more popular than any of the other GTA games is because it has a fully-featured online mode. GTA Online is one of the most successful live service games on the market, and it makes nearly half a billion dollars each year due to microtransactions. Rockstar hasn't officially confirmed if GTA 6 will have an online mode of its own yet, but given how the company has basically been printing money with GTA Online, it's likely that it will implement a multiplayer component into the game at some point. Once GTA 6's online mode is released, though, it may come up against some major competition.
Cyberpunk 2077's Sequel May Be Getting a GTA Online-Like Multiplayer Mode
CD Projekt Red, the Polish developer behind The Witcher 3, recently posted a job listing on its website regarding the highly-anticipated sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. According to this listing, Cyberpunk 2 is apparently going to have some sort of online multiplayer mode. The post states that the studio is currently looking for a Lead Network Engineer who can not only lead a team to "develop and optimize multiplayer systems," but also "maintain efficient network architectures for online features." CD Projekt Red doesn't outright list any specifics about this potential multiplayer component, but judging by the company's previous attempts at making such a mode, it could be something on the level of GTA Online.
CD Projekt Red has said in the past that it eventually wants to make multiplayer games in all of its franchises, so it's not surprising that the company is apparently planning multiplayer content for Cyberpunk 2.
Multiplayer Was Planned for the Original Cyberpunk, But It Was Ultimately Scrapped
The original Cyberpunk 2077 is currently an offline, singleplayer-only game, but this wasn't always meant to be the case. Prior to its launch, CD Projekt Red announced that it was working on a standalone multiplayer component for the game, which it had planned to release in 2021. Unsurprisingly, this component was delayed indefinitely in January of that year, primarily because of the poor technical state that Cyberpunk 2077 was in at the time. After going silent on the project for several months, CD Projekt Red later confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer mode had been canceled completely.
Although CD Projekt Red never really revealed what multiplayer in Cyberpunk 2077 would have looked like, it's evident that the company had big ambitions for the project. In an investor call from 2020, CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kacinski said that he viewed the component not as a mode, but as a "separate dedicated production." Judging by the way that he described it, it seemed like Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer was indeed going to have a similar scope to that of GTA Online. Whether it would have actually had gameplay similar to GTA Online, however, is unclear.
Cyberpunk 2's Potential Multiplayer Mode Could Be a Serious Competitor to GTA 6 Online
Given how popular Cyberpunk 2077 is, a multiplayer component for the game would almost certainly have attracted the attention of many gamers. While it's too late for CD Projekt Red to add multiplayer to the title, it could get another opportunity at making a live service hit with Cyberpunk 2. If the multiplayer mode that the company is seemingly working on for Cyberpunk's sequel is as ambitious as the one intended for the first game, then it may actually serve as a viable alternative to GTA 6's online component. Even though Grand Theft Auto 6 is probably going to sell way more copies than Cyberpunk 2 ever will, a Cyberpunk multiplayer game is probably the only thing that could stand a chance against GTA.
OpenCritic Reviews
- Released
- November 19, 2026
- ESRB
- Rating Pending - Likely Mature 17+
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
