GTA 5 Online Heists revealed in new trailer

Heist missions have finally been revealed for Grand Theft Auto Online—GTA 5's self-explanatory online mode. Okay, so the "finally" of that sentence is somewhat bitter-sweet, given that on PC we're still waiting for GTA 5's January release.

IGN has an informative interview on what the feature will entail, and also questions why the co-op heist missions took as long as they have.

"They just turned out to be a lot more difficult than we originally thought," said GTA Online producer Imran Sarwar.

"One of the challenges is that unlike a heist in Story Mode," Sarwar later said, "every player needs to feel central to the action at all times, and that’s much more challenging than it appears." In the singleplayer game, players can switch between characters to ensure they're always at the centre. In online play? Not so easy. Sarwar uses the example of a getaway driver, and needing something for that player to do that isn't just sitting around and waiting in a car.

The co-op heists will be four player multi-segment missions, and, according to Sarwar, will be organised by a designated "heist leader" among the group. As for the missions themselves, "some missions have all players working as one unit, some require players to take on specific tasks like hacking or crowd control, while others require players to split into smaller teams to complete separate high value objectives."

With no exact release date, it's not clear if online heists will be ready for GTA 5's PC release. That, if you weren't already counting down the days, will happen on 27 January.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.