After 15 years, GTA 6 is seemingly giving GTA Online's little-loved Social Club feature a much-needed refresh
The changes to Rockstar's website happen to fall right before GTA 6's debut trailer
It appears Rockstar Games is changing up its Social Club system, ahead of GTA 6's full reveal.
Yesterday, November 20, sleuthing GTA 5 community members began noticing some changes to the game's website. Specifically, all mention of of GTA Online's 'Social Club' was taken down from the website, replaced merely with the Rockstar Games logo, as catalogued in the screenshots below.
Rockstar has updated the main site & Socialclubhttps://t.co/T2D43Bqcxg pic.twitter.com/g4Og1aHvS0November 20, 2023
In the lower of the two tweets just below, it seems the removal of the Social Club branding is a very deliberate move from Rockstar. All mentions of the feature have now been removed, and make mention of only Rockstar Games in its place - seemingly confirming the Social Club is set for some sort of change.
All Social Club branding all gone too, now replaced with the Rockstar logo on the sign in page.Also removed on the front page. https://t.co/1gWNAO2S4l pic.twitter.com/pzNh7uYdpENovember 21, 2023
Whether the Social Club is going away entirely, or will just be replaced by another online service, isn't entirely clear just yet. Rockstar hasn't even commented on the changes publicly at the time of writing, so the only information we have right now is whatever the GTA community has managed to dig up.
However, it'd be remiss not to mention the timing of these changes ahead of GTA 6's eventual reveal next month in December. Rockstar acknowledged the sequel in a series of messages from creative lead Dan Houser earlier this month in November, pledging to reveal a trailer for the new game the following month.
It could be that Rockstar will unveil a new Social Club-like feature alongside, or shortly after, GTA 6's reveal next month. The Social Club was launched all the way back alongside GTA 4's debut in 2008, so it's over 15 years old at this point. Maybe Rockstar wants to try something new.
Here's why GTA 6's reveal trailer has a lot of work to do, after GTA 4 and 5 had two of the best reveal trailers ever made.
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Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.