GTA 6 may have Roblox-style user-created content, new report says

Rockstar Games’ ambitions for Grand Theft Auto 6 may go beyond what Grand Theft Auto Online is capable of. According to a new report from Digiday, Rockstar is said to be courting “top Roblox and Fortnite creators,” as well as content creators who are already working with Grand Theft Auto 5, to develop user-generated content (UGC) for GTA 6.

The move would be a big shift for Rockstar, which has maintained tight control over the content officially available in its Grand Theft Auto games, clamping down on mods and, in 2015, banning the creators of the popular FiveM mod from its Rockstar Social Club. However, many of Rockstar’s actions against mods have been to curb cheat makers and to discourage “unauthorized alternate multiplayer service[s] that contains code designed to facilitate piracy.”

But, in 2023, Rockstar purchased Cfx.re, the team behind the GTA 5 mod FiveM and Red Dead Redemption 2 mod RedM, two popular mods that power custom multiplayer and robust role-playing experiences on those games. Rockstar hasn’t announced plans for mods or user-generated content for Grand Theft Auto 6, but the game maker certainly seems more willing to allow UGC in its games, thanks to the popularity of FiveM and its acquisition of the team behind it.

Digiday’s report on UGC for GTA 6 appears to back up a previous report from GTA Focal last year, which said that Rockstar’s “broader vision for the future of GTA Online […] involves user-generated content” through new proprietary modding tools.

According to Digiday’s report, which cites multiple anonymous sources, GTA 6 content creators would have the ability to modify the game’s environment and assets — and even bring outside brands into the game’s sandbox. Game platforms like Roblox have spun off successful in-game creations like Dress to Impress, while Epic Games has enabled creators to develop new and branded experiences through Fortnite with Fortnite Islands and the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.

Polygon has reached out to Rockstar for comment on Digiday’s report and will update when the developer responds.

Rockstar hasn’t announced details regarding Grand Theft Auto 6’s online or multiplayer components. To date, the developer has stuck to hyping up the single-player narrative side of its next big open-world crime-spree adventure, which is expected to launch sometime this fall.