Grand Theft Auto Online is getting “new advancements in open world gameplay” next week, according to the Rockstar news wire. Freemode events are exactly what they sound like: overworld activities with no lobbies, load times, or menus. Freemode events may take the form of turf war King of the Castle games, Hunt the Beast shenanigans, stunt challenges, and more.
The new stuff won’t be available on last-gen consoles, though, as Rockstar is dropping GTA Online support on the older platforms. Rockstar North director of design Imran Sarwar told IGN that memory is the main culprit. “We are constantly adding new items to the game with each update and we began approaching the memory limits after the first year of GTA Online content,” he explained. “We found ourselves almost at capacity after the launch of heists but with some creative programming we managed to squeeze additional updates into those older systems which allowed us to make it as far as the two Ill Gotten Gains updates, but we can’t make any more meaningful updates without putting the stability of the entire online game at risk.”
IGN also reports that GTA Online sees “8 million people log in each week.” You can preview the new freemode content in the video after the cut.
