The recently released GTA V Enhanced for PC has been criticised since day one by fans for missing a key feature: in-game text chat. Since then, there has been a bundle of speculation and leaks about its future which we’ve covered. However, there might be a new twist in the tale and it involves Discord.
For starters, let’s take a look at what happened at launch. Players noticed there was no ability to use text chat in GTA Online lobbies for communication with randoms when doing jobs. This is a critical tool. Rockstar Support told players who complained that it was not supported at launch. This left some room for it to be added back in due course.
This was further cemented with a comment from a developer at Rockstar. In the pause menu file found in the game, they wrote “text chat option not yet added to Gen9. Coming soon”. This brought a lot of hope to players.
In the two weeks since launch, Rockstar Games have published four patches and none of them have contained the reintroduction of text chat. The more time goes on and more patches come out, fans are growing wary. In the most recent patch, they “Fixed an issue that resulted in players being unable to bind the T and Y keys on their keyboard ”. The T key is used for text chat in the old version. Some fans have begun to speculate if this means text chat will ever come back now.
The Answer Is Discord…?
Furthermore, Rockstar insider Tez2 shared an interesting theory. Yesterday, Discord announced their own SDK to bring Discord into games. This means game developers won’t have to create their own text or voice chat system.
If R* aims to integrate Discord Social SDK, this could explain the removal of text chat. It would give them time to make it work with Discord and perhaps develop a console version, allowing them to expand the integration to Gen9 consoles once Discord Social SDK supports them. – Tez2
It might not happen but something to consider at least. We’ve seen Rockstar and Discord continue to work together a lot in the past few weeks and months. Rockstar launched their own server on the platform and have “looking for heists” channels to promote working together.
Tez does say if this was to happen, it would not be for the whole lobby but more for talking to friends and linking channels like the ones mentioned above. If this does end up happening, it could set a precedent for GTA 6. Relying on a 3rd party, even a popular one, might not be welcomed by users.
If there is any more updates to GTA V Enhanced including text chat, we’ll be sure to report on it right here at RockstarINTEL. How has your experience been with this new version of GTA V on PC so far? Let us know down in the comments section below.
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