Highlights
- A fan discovered a never-released beta build of Grand Theft Auto Online, revealing features that Rockstar cut from the game, including a detailed Wasted screen and periodic drops of "special crates."
- The beta version of GTA Online had a different UI and offered the ability to call gang backups, which were later removed in the final version.
- The beta build had five character slots, while the current version only has two, leading to disappointment among fans who want more character creation options. Rockstar may revisit cut content in future games, with GTA 6 rumored to release in 2024.
One inquisitive fan recently found a way to play a never-released beta build of Grand Theft Auto Online which is nearly a decade old, having consequently discovered a number of features that Rockstar cut from the game. This is the second major leak centered on the hit game that surfaced over the last few months, arriving shortly after one insider leaked the release date of a recent GTA Online update.
October 1 will mark the ten-year anniversary of Grand Theft Auto Online, which continues to enjoy a strong following to this date. The multiplayer component of GTA 5 originally launched a few weeks behind the single-player game, as Rockstar needed a bit more time to iron out its bugs and wrap up launch content development.
Almost a decade later, YouTube user KimiSha19 discovered a way to play the first version of GTA Online that was technically always part of GTA 5's day-one build but never actually released. Following some experimentation with Xenia, the same Xbox 360 emulator that significantly boosts Red Dead Redemption's performance, the fan found that it's possible to spoof the game version on the initial GTA 5 build in order to access its pre-release online multiplayer mode. This piqued the curiosity of GTA Forums member BakeWithMe1000, who soon delved into this never-released version of GTA Online in order to compare it to the finished product.
While the newly discovered beta version of GTA Online borders on unplayable due to a variety of missing mechanics and bugs, it also includes a number of features that never actually made their way to the finished game. One of them is a detailed Wasted screen that shows what weapon was used to kill the player, in addition to revealing the locations of the fatal shots and head-to-head stats against their killer. Periodic drops of "special crates" are another such abandoned feature, although it's unclear what exactly they were meant to contain. Furthermore, GTA Online's UI looked vastly different, with the beta version of the game also offering the ability to call Edgar Carlos, Al Carter, or Lamar for "gang backups."
One final notable distinction between GTA Online and its newly surfaced beta build is that the latter offered five character slots, whereas the former only has two of them. Some of the fans chiming in on this discovery expressed their disappointment with the fact that Rockstar never added additional character creation slots to the game, not least because of how many truly useless features made their way to GTA Online over the years.
While all of that cut content has ostensibly been long abandoned, there's still a chance for Rockstar to revisit some of those ideas in another game. Its first opportunity to do so is believed to be drawing near, as GTA 6 is reportedly targeting a 2024 release.
Grand Theft Auto Online is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: BakeWithMe1000 / GTA Forums
