A recent leak of Grand Theft Auto 5's source code, reportedly around 200GB in size, has surfaced new details about Rockstar Games' previously unreleased downloadable content plans. Analysis of the leaked data suggests the developer had significant, city-sized expansions in mind for GTA 5, including a potential return to Liberty City.
This discovered Liberty City content appears to be substantially larger than the version featured in Grand Theft Auto 4. While there is speculation that elements of this content may be repurposed for GTA 6, no concrete evidence supports this theory. The leak also provides further evidence of a planned single-player DLC focused on the character Trevor Philips, which would have seen him acting as a secret agent.
Actor Steven Ogg, who voices Trevor, has previously spoken about Rockstar's initial intentions for a story expansion centered on his character. He, along with actors Ned Luke (Michael) and Shawn Fonteno (Franklin), discussed this scrapped DLC during a Streamily Q&A session, describing the concept where Trevor would go undercover for the FEDs.
Joe Robino, a former senior camera artist at Rockstar, elaborated on why these story DLCs were shelved. He explained that development was split, with some teams moving to Red Dead Redemption 2 while others worked on standalone DLC. Robino indicated that while the Trevor-focused DLC was substantial, the immense success of GTA Online as a "cash cow" led Rockstar to prioritize multiplayer updates over single-player expansions.
Elements from the unreleased DLC might have found their way into later GTA Online content. Dataminers have previously found references to Trevor with a jetpack, a feature that eventually appeared in GTA Online's Doomsday Heist missions alongside the Thruster jetpack, lending credence to Robino's assertion that the content was not entirely wasted.
Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser also addressed the abandoned single-player DLC in a 2024 interview, stating that the Trevor spy mission concept was roughly half-finished. He suggested that pursuing this DLC would have likely prevented the development of Red Dead Redemption 2, highlighting the business decisions and compromises inherent in game development.
This revelation comes amidst heightened security concerns at Rockstar, following a major GTA 6 leak last year. The company has detailed its stringent security measures, comparing its posture to that of a Wall Street bank, in an effort to prevent future breaches of confidential information.