I don't consider GTA Online's story to be "canon"

[slimeball supreme]

On 3/30/2023 at 3:39 AM, happygrowls said:

im pretty sure that saying 10 years of content updates for a game played by millions never happened is more of a slap in the face to fans of GTAO than it is to people who chose to kill Michael/Trevor/Friedlander

im okay with that and think they should be slapped in the face. They have directly contributed to the simpsons tapped outification of this series

[Krymefull]

On 3/31/2023 at 6:56 PM, D T said:

There will never be a point during the development of a story where Michael Unsworth is like "no, f*ck, we can't do this major plot point because in the GTA Online mission Potshot the mute protagonists wiped out those dealers at Braddock Farm for Trevor."

About Michael Unsworth. He just recently left Rockstar Games a few days ago.

 

Damn man. You are a f*cking jinx.  

[Niobium]

i don't even consider V's story canon, personally. it's in it's own, self-contained story

[Thelema93]

You mean it's not canon for a bunch of mute psychopaths to go around on flying bikes pulling doomsday heists? Colour me shocked

[Haruko Haruhara]

See this is why I like to think GTA Online's events are actually Vinewood movies. The Lowriders update and anything before that is canon, but all the Saints Row sh*t like jetpacks, flying cars, saving the world, etc. aren't real because they're the HD universe's equivalent to corny summer blockbusters. You know, movies like ones directed by Michael Bay and literally anything with Dwayne Johnson

Edited September 1, 2023 by Eugene H. Krabs

[R_DeSanta]

There’s so many inconsistencies with story mode that it makes me think Online isn’t canon either.

 

Some examples:

- Lowriders is supposed to take place before story mode, yet during story mode Benny’s garage is an empty building. But in Online it’s still open even though since Online has taken place in current-time since at least Gunrunning/2017 and there’s no mention of it having ever closed temporarily or something.

- Dom literally dies by jumping off the dam in Franklin’s last mission with him, yet he’s still alive in Online.

- If Import/Export took place after the story, it doesn’t make sense that Jay Norris and Molly (M. Schultz) are still alive as one of the people you sell the cars for. It also doesn’t make sense if it takes before story mode because Lester mentions the Union Depository never having been hit before, yet in one of the missions for Import/Export you assist someone robbing the Union Depository.

[The-Ghost]

I play GTAO and I don't consider a good portion of its events to be canon, or even serious to begin with, also... what even is the story of GTAO anyway? if you take every single storyline they added with online, nothing even remotely compares to Doomsday in terms of danger and impact, and if it is really a story, that should've been the end of it.

16 hours ago, R_DeSanta said:

- If Import/Export took place after the story, it doesn’t make sense that Jay Norris and Molly (M. Schultz) are still alive as one of the people you sell the cars for. It also doesn’t make sense if it takes before story mode because Lester mentions the Union Depository never having been hit before, yet in one of the missions for Import/Export you assist someone robbing the Union Depository.

You assist someone in Import/Export, and you even hit it yourself like it was nothing in one of the Tuners contract, making the whole massive setup to it in Story Mode to be completely pointless.

GTAVI mentions Jay Norris as being dead, so I think the next game is taking GTAV and its story as what is canon, rather than GTAO.

Edited September 4, 2023 by MaddenedGhost

[MrCasinoGuyy]

Some GTAO story shouldn't be canon like The Doomsday Heist and The Last Dose. Hope GTA VI will retcon GTAO and make it non-canon

[MrCasinoGuyy]

On 9/4/2023 at 1:56 AM, notactive said:

There’s so many inconsistencies with story mode that it makes me think Online isn’t canon either.

 

Some examples:

- Lowriders is supposed to take place before story mode, yet during story mode Benny’s garage is an empty building. But in Online it’s still open even though since Online has taken place in current-time since at least Gunrunning/2017 and there’s no mention of it having ever closed temporarily or something.

- Dom literally dies by jumping off the dam in Franklin’s last mission with him, yet he’s still alive in Online.

- If Import/Export took place after the story, it doesn’t make sense that Jay Norris and Molly (M. Schultz) are still alive as one of the people you sell the cars for. It also doesn’t make sense if it takes before story mode because Lester mentions the Union Depository never having been hit before, yet in one of the missions for Import/Export you assist someone robbing the Union Depository.

Yeah, it also confuses me that Dom literally text me when I start playing GTAO. And you are right, there are so many inconsistencies with Story Mode and Online. Take Merryweather as an example, they aren't supposed to appear in GTAO, because in GTA V Merryweather was forced to not operate in San Andreas again, however Rockstar broke their own lore and have Merryweather appearing again in GTAO.

[squishyboithighs]

I'm going to cry if the awful stupid crap from online like the oppressor mark 2 and hover craft DeLorean returns in 6. 

 

Gta online was the best thing to happen to R* financially and the worst thing to happen to the series 

[MrCasinoGuyy]

18 hours ago, squishyboithighs said:

I'm going to cry if the awful stupid crap from online like the oppressor mark 2 and hover craft DeLorean returns in 6. 

 

Gta online was the best thing to happen to R* financially and the worst thing to happen to the series 

I agree with you

 

[Lock n' Stock]

GTA Online should essentially be treated like Undead Nightmare was for RDR. Clearly set in the same universe but is otherwise it's own timeline entirely.

[Spider-Vice]

On 5/26/2024 at 3:32 PM, Lock n' Stock said:

GTA Online should essentially be treated like Undead Nightmare was for RDR. Clearly set in the same universe but is otherwise it's own timeline entirely.

I could see this but not for everything - I can see some events being canon, things like Dr. Friedlander opening FriedMind in Vice City as well, etc. but not stuff like Doomsday Heist or the repeated daily Cayo Perico Heists (maybe a joke about that tho), or even the existence of Oppressor Mk2's and similar - I wouldn't be surprised if those were relegated to some sort of conspiracy website or news.

For example imagine people on an in-game conspiracy forum talking about flying bikes in Los Santos but there'd be no evidence it actually happened  

[Pashaforever]

On 5/26/2024 at 5:32 PM, Lock n' Stock said:

GTA Online should essentially be treated like Undead Nightmare was for RDR. Clearly set in the same universe but is otherwise it's own timeline entirely.

Undead Nightmare is more canon to Red Dead than Online is to GTA.

[DUNK512]

It’s canon, y’all gotta get the f*ck over it.

 

 

[Spider-Vice]

33 minutes ago, DUNK512 said:

It’s canon, y’all gotta get the f*ck over it.

 

 

Eh, I think it's fair to speculate about whether all of it is canon or not, I expect most of it to be but I could see some specific retcons.

 

That said yes, I do agree people need to get over GTAO's existence as it is indeed part of the GTA Universe as a whole now.

[Meesmoth]

The first trailer for GTA VI pretty much suggests a large chunk of Online did not happen, as we don't see the futuristic stuff in Vice City like jetpacks and flying bikes.

 

If there's any events canon to the mainstream HD universe, it's the ones that take place in 2013, so anything starting with Gunrunning, is no longer canon.

[Zak Ras]

On 3/26/2023 at 10:16 AM, lol232 said:

It's just very hard to believe that all that stupid sh*t is in the same universe as GTA IV's story.

 

Hardly.

 

Think about it from the point of view of a regular person living in Los Santos. Outside of small-time crime, shootouts, drug dealing & street racing, the following are the contenders for what the average LS resident would be made aware of via the evening news in the 12+ years it'll have been between 2013 & 2025;

 

Spoiler

Heists - Set in 2013
Fleeca Job
Prison Break
Pacific Standard Job

 

Import/Export
Union Depository Robbery 2

 

After Hours - Set in 2018
Pac Standard/Fleeca Robbery

 

Arena War
...Arena War

 

Diamond Casino - Set in 2019
Opens and followed swiftly by a change of ownership
Casino Heist (3 times)

 

LS Tuners - Set in 2021
Bank Contract
Prison Contract
ECU Contract
Superdollar Contract (this actively hit the news while it was happening)
Union Depository Robbery 3

 

Los Santos Drug Wars - Set in 2022
Weazel Plaza Terrorist Attack

 

San Andreas Mercenaries - Set in 2023
Merryweather lose their contract with the US Government.

 

Chop Shop
Car stolen during an Arena War match
Breakout at Mission Row Police Station
Diamond Casino Heist 4
Submarine beached in Paleto Bay

 

Just because GTA Online has had so many storylines with varying stakes... does not mean the entire world knows the events in those storylines even happened. Now, tonally? You bet your arse it's bizarre to think that GTA Online and everything that happens in it is in the same work of fiction as a down to Earth tragedy as GTA IV.

 

It's not like this hasn't happened in the past with the franchise. Look at III & Vice City, both fairly down to earth games, yet they bookend San Andreas and all of CJ's wacky antics - from street gang hoodlum to CIA asset... back to street gang hoodlum while also being a music manager, a mechanic workshop owner, and having a stake in a Casino. Or better yet, Fort Staunton was completely wiped out by Toni - in what remains the biggest act of domestic terrorism ever committed by a protagonist in a GTA game - who then just 3 years later is grovelling for his mother's approval while having trouble with Portland's Triads.