Rockstar recruits the team behind the biggest ‘GTA V’ roleplay community

Even though it's very nearly a decade old, Grand Theft Auto V is still one of the biggest games on the planet. More than 151,000 people are playing it on Steam alone at the time of writing and it still makes a major contribution to Rockstar Games owner Take-Two's bank balance.

Roleplaying has been a major contributor to GTA V's enduring popularity, with tens of thousands of players using mods to create characters that live, work and play with greater freedom in San Andreas and Los Santos. Now, Rockstar is making moves in that space as Cfx.re, the team behind the biggest GTA V (FiveM) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (RedM) mods and communities, has joined the publisher.

"Over the past few years, we've watched with excitement as Rockstar's creative community have found new ways to expand the possibilities of Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2, particularly through the creation of dedicated roleplay servers," Rockstar wrote in its announcement. "As a way to further support those efforts, we recently expanded our policy on mods to officially include those made by the roleplay creative community. By partnering with the Cfx.re team, we will help them find new ways to support this incredible community and improve the services they provide to their developers and players."

The Cfx.re crew is jazzed about the move as well. "This is a huge step forward in the growth of our community, and an opportunity for us to work with Rockstar Games to advance the FiveM platform and the creative community surrounding it," the team wrote in a forum post. "While our day-to-day operations won't have any noticeable changes, with Rockstar's support, we are going to continue to improve our platform and we are truly excited for what this means for our users, community and creators!"

As Polygonnotes, more than 170,000 players were using the FiveM on custom servers on Friday morning, according to the mod's website. The popular NoPixel server runs on FiveM and uses custom scripts to enhance the roleplaying experience.

Rockstar and Cfx.re haven't fully detailed their plans for FiveM and RedM. In any case, Rockstar is now in a position to do whatever it wants with the mods. It will absolutely want to keep supporting GTA Onlineand its communities for the foreseeable future, but there is the small matter of a new Grand Theft Auto game on the horizon.

When Grand Theft Auto VI debuts - perhaps next year - it could have robust roleplaying features baked in thanks to the help of the Cfx.re team. As such, there's a possibility that Rockstar could take full ownership of the GTA VI roleplaying scene by having it already in the game and restricting mods. This is speculation, in fairness, but the impact of this acquisition on the GTA roleplaying community in the years to come is worth considering.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rockstar-recruits-the-team-behind-the-biggest-gta-v-roleplay-community-163911086.html?src=rss