Rockstar Games to integrate a cryptocurrency in Grand Theft Auto 6

Rockstar games to integrate cryptocurrency GTA6

Back in February, Rockstar Games announced that its controversial and critically successful open-world crime franchise, Grand Theft Auto 6, is now in development. Since then, very little information has been released.

What is GTA?

Grand Theft Auto is a series of action-adventure games, typically of the open world variety (i.e., a world where players can freely interact with various objects and explore with very few limitations), with the location of each game set in the fictional versions of real-life cities, such as Liberty City (based on New York City) and Vice City (based on Miami). The name of the franchise is a direct nod to the term “grand theft auto,” which refers to “motor vehicle theft” (the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle) used in the United States.

Originally created by two of the founders of British video game development company DMA Design (now known as Rockstar North), David Jones and Mike Dailly, the first two mainline titles of the franchise, Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto II, are different (but still carry the same game philosophy, player-created chaos) from their more modern counterparts.

Both GTA 1 and 2 are shown from a top-down perspective, and players must reach a certain number of points to advance to the next level. These points can be earned from doing anything: from causing death and destruction amid the traffic of the everyday citizens of the city, stealing and selling cars for profit, and even completing tasks set by the level’s local crime syndicate.

Grand Theft Auto III and on (specifically from the mainline games) are presented from the third-person perspective, as well as ditching the point system to progress through the game. Players will now complete missions (linear scenarios with a set of objectives) to move through the story. Outside of these missions, gamers are free to roam the game’s open world to do whatever they please, with the ability to accomplish optional side missions if they wish.

The Grand Theft Auto series has always had a knack for looking into the future. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, released in 2004, is still considered a very innovative and futuristic game, even two decades later. GTA: San Andreas displayed flying jetpacks and various other elements that are technologically advanced even today.  

The integration with cryptocurrency

Rumor has it that Rockstar Games is going to include a cryptocurrency in Grand Theft Auto 6, allowing players to earn and trade. 

In 2008, Rockstar Games introduced the stock market in Grand Theft Auto 4, named The Liberty City Stock Exchange (LCSE). The LCSE was located in The Exchange, in the southern region of Algonquin, Liberty City, which is influenced by the real-world’s Manhattan’s Financial District in New York City. The LCSE building has no role in the storyline and thus is inaccessible to the player. It just existed on the map with the price ticker moving.

Things changed after Grand Theft Auto 5 was released in late 2013, as Rockstar Games allowed players into the (digital) world of stock markets. Players of all kinds could access BAWSAQ (a parody of the real-life NASDAQ) and the Liberty City National (LCN) Exchange (based on the real-life New York Stock Exchange) through the internet connection on their smartphone in-game. There, users could buy and sell stocks according to their will and have gameplay involving the stock market. If they wish, gamers could make massive amounts of money in the ‘Stock Market Assassination Missions‘ issued by Lester Crest, a central character in the storyline of GTA 5. A few lucky players even made more than $2 billion by manipulating the stock market from these missions after completing a certain number of conditions.

Now, stocks aside, Rockstar Games may be planning to include the next innovative currency of this digital age and make it the most anticipated game among its fan community. Rather than the usual cash rewards for completing missions, GTA 6 could reward players with some crypto (whether it be Bitcoin or something else) instead. Rockstar Games could include a few characters like Lester in the game’s plot (or in GTA 6’s online counterpart) to provide players with an alternate source of income if the mission(s) require it.

As one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time (more than 375 million sales), the Grand Theft Auto franchise is an innovator in the gaming sphere; the inclusion of cryptocurrencies would require very little effort to continue Rockstar Games’ dominance as innovators in the third-person open world genre of games.

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