While Rockstar has always had a contentious relationship with modders, things seemed poised to change when the company acquired FiveM, the mod team bringing GTA RP to life. Now, a full year later, the studio is finally acknowledging a GTA RP event with an in-game promotion.
Rockstar is currently running an ad targeted to Brazilian Twitter users in promotion of a GTA RP event called CPX Fest. "For the opening of CPX Fest on @complexogg, the largest Brazilian GTA RP server," a machine translated version of that ad says, players from Brazil and Portugal will earn GTA$400k for playing GTA Online between 08/19 and 09/01. New players from these countries will receive an additional GTA$400,000 as an incentive."
A small event promoted in just one region seems like an inauspicious start to whatever plans Rockstar has with GTA RP, but it's still a far more direct link to that side of the community than the studio has done before. As prominent Rockstar community member Ben notes on Twitter, "This is a REALLY big move. Hopefully we'll get to see Rockstar partner up with No Pixel and other major servers in the future."
Naturally, the big question with Rockstar's acquisition of FiveM has always been what it'll mean for GTA 6, and we really don't know the answer to that just yet. After all, the studio still hasn't even announced whether the upcoming game will feature an online component at all, though it's certainly a safe bet that Rockstar will wanna keep the money train that is GTA Online a-rollin'. Whatever role FiveM and GTA RP have in that remains to be seen.
I'm replaying Grand Theft Auto 4, and GTA 6 has a lot to learn from Liberty City.