Grand Theft Auto 5 rumours suggest full-blown MMO could be built over next four years

It goes without saying that rumours and speculation should always be taken with a pinch of salt—and the latest pertaining to the direction of Grand Theft Auto over the next few years is no different. But, and this is a relatively big but, should the information posted by one GTAForum user in fact turn out to be true, then it seems fans of the open-world crime series have a lot to look forward to. 

Before we discuss the meat of the predictions, it's worth pointing out that the user in question, Softsecret, has only posted three times to the GTAForums—twice in August with the speculations listed below, and once back in 2013 months before the release of GTA 5. 

Speaking first to the latter, his or her predictions were related to the then incoming game and what its single-player and multiplayer campaigns would comprise. As some users have since pointed out, though, while some of their insights have turned out to be true, some haven't. Nevertheless, Softsecret's latest guesses go into some pretty specific detail.   

Posted in August, here's the entirety of what they reckon is in store for GTA between now and 2020 (note also that this was posted prior to the Biker DLC's announcement and subsequent release): 

"Biker DLC: (Bikes, clothes, free roam missions) Purchase clubhouse to activate biker free roam missions. 

"Law and order DLC: (Police free roam and vehicles) Purchase police vehicles to activate free roam police missions. 

"The Luxury Living DLC: (Mansions & Pets) Purchase Mansion to purchase exotic pets (Mansion grounds only). 

"The Blaine County and Paleto DLC: (Animals in free roam) Animals online syncing workaround via VIP mission type activation.

"North Yankton and Liberty City: (Online Map expansion) Paid DLC September, 2017. 

"San Fierro and Las Venturas: (Online Map expansion) Paid DLC October, 2018   

"Vice City... not until GTA 6, sometime around 2020 at the very earliest.

"San Fierro and Las Venturas were built alongside Los santos way back in the early development stages of GTAV, Scrapped on PS3/Xbox for obvious reasons. After more than three years of rebuilding for PS4/XBO/PC, both are still being worked on with a release target of October 2018. 

"Single player DLC has been replaced with Online Map expansion model. Mainly due to the unforeseen success of micro transactions and GTA online in general. Liberty City will be released September 2017. The DLC will include: an open ticket (for city slickers) to Liberty City; an open ticket (for Snow Blowers) to North Yankton; exclusive VIP membership (for High rollers) which grants exclusive access to the casino in Los Santos! 

"Pre Order Bonus of one million GTA Casino chips for pre order. Micro transactions can not buy GTA Online casino chips. Liberty City, North Yankton and the Los Santos Casino scheduled together to keep player migration relatively balanced. Liberty City will enable you to trade on the stock market, once an office has been purchased. Similar to the current crate set up. 

"Both DLC's will be priced equivalent to a full game"

[NB - formatting altered from original post for easier readability.]

Softsecret concludes by suggesting that they "can't say much more, there [sic] onto me… speculating can get you into a lot [of] trouble."

Even assuming any of the above is true, it's unlikely Rockstar will return comment so early on. We've nonetheless reached out and will update as and when we hear back.

While some of the details up there seem entirely possible—the introduction of a casino, for example—some of it does seem like a lot of work in a relatively short space of time. Don't get me wrong, in lieu or single-player DLC, this would certainly fulfil my own GTA needs, but what do you guys think? Let us know in the comments below.