New GTA Online update announced, brings major improvements and content

Rockstar Games have officially announced what is coming in the next GTA Online update. Strap yourself in because there plenty of major changes and content additions coming very soon. Kicking off their latest newswire post, Rockstar thanked the “devoted community of enterprising criminals, creators, and competitors in Grand Theft Auto Online”.

Free new vehicle

The first bit of new content is the promised free vehicle reward for all players as the community completed The Heists Challenge. Rockstar confirmed the vehicle we shall receive is the “retro-styled Declasse Tahoma Coupe“. This new car will be made available to all GTA Online players for a limited time later this month. They also included our first look at it with an in-game screenshot.

Major improvements to gameplay

Earlier this year, Rockstar made significant quality of life improvements to GTA Online and things are only going to get better. In the blog post Rockstar reiterate their commitment to listening to player feedback and “this December’s GTA Online update will add a wide range of new improvements to Freemode and beyond, many of which were submitted directly by players via the GTA Online feedback website.” Below is the list of changes made to GTA Online in the December update.

General Improvements

• Get to your favorite iFruit Contacts faster — select which Contacts to display or hide via the Interaction Menu.
• The Benefactor Terrorbyte can be used to launch Business Sell Missions in all Session types, including Invite-only Sessions.
• Take on Agatha’s Casino Story Missions as a solo operator by visiting the Management Office of The Diamond Casino & Resort (these missions previously required at least 2 players).
• PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will add ray-traced reflections — rendering real-time reflections on many surfaces — via the Fidelity Mode graphics setting.

Vehicle Updates

• New vehicle purchases will arrive in your Garage faster than before.
• Select Custom Weaponized Vehicles can now be used in Races, where appropriate — weapons will be disabled outside of GTA Races.
• Bicycles will be added to the list of vehicles that can be requested from your Personal Garage when calling the Mechanic.
• Players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S can enjoy full access to Hao’s Special Works without needing to complete Hao’s introductory race.

Economy Updates

• Completing Vehicle Cargo Sell Missions in Public Sessions will award a High Demand Bonus, bringing this in line with all other business activities, while payouts on Smuggler’s Sell Missions will be permanently tripled.
• Get more of what you want faster with an across-the-board increase in the GTA$ value of all Shark Cards. Starting today, all Shark Card denominations have been boosted by 20–25% when purchased directly in GTA Online or via any of the platform stores. For special GTA+ Member Shark Cards, this is on top of the current 15% bonus GTA$.

Whilst no release date for this big update has been confirmed, Rockstar assure us this GTA Online update will come “later this month for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC”.

New DLC

A brief paragraph on the next DLC for the game was also shared by the studio. Rockstar say we can “Take a walk on the wild side of Blaine County in the first instalment of a massive multi-part update taking you all across the expanse of Southern San Andreas, featuring some familiar faces and a new troupe of entrepreneurial misfits on a mission to expand the minds of the citizens of Los Santos, one trip at a time. Plus, expect a fleet of new vehicles, world events, Contact Missions, and more.”

They end their newswire article by saying “Stay tuned for much more very soon…” Fans will speculate this is a trailer for GTA 6 but it likely means a trailer and breakdown of the update coming this month.

Which improvments are you most looking forward to in GTA Online’s new update? Let us know down in the comments and stay tuned for future news with RockstarINTEL.