Grand Theft Auto Online launched as part of something else.

But now, seven years removed from that awful launch, GTA Online is one of the most popular games in the world.

It’s totally eclipsed the game it was originally a part of and will now do something few online games ever have: exist across seven platforms actively and simultaneously.

And while you can still do these things in today’s game, they’ve become dated relics of a different era, an era when GTA Online was more grounded, and focused on being serious and gritty.

Again, these are all things you can still do in GTA Online, but it’s moved far beyond that, and soon your phone will blow up with text messages and phone calls from seven years’ worth of characters and factions.

It’s a game where police officers still send cars and helicopters to stop players driving hover tanks and shooting lasers.

And like any large buffet, parts of it feel like it’s only there because, well, it has to be.

At first, folks were excited about the future of an online Grand Theft Auto game.

Many players feel like Rockstar is making GTA Online more of a grind to earn more money.

When the game launched, Rockstar explained that it was set before the events of GTA V, a game that itself is set around 2012.

GTA Online has long abandoned the grounded world and narrative it launched with in favor of becoming a giant content platform, where both Rockstar and players can create and share wild game modes and maps.

While GTA Online continues to grow and grow, both thanks to fans and Rockstar’s official updates, the world and game are starting to strain at the seams.

The world feels static, and there’s only so many times I can drive from the desert to the city during a mission before I start to find myself wanting a change of scenery?

It all feels creaky and old, like one-day Rockstar will add one too many cars to the game and the whole thing will collapse like a sandcastle.

In reality, It’s unlikely GTA Online will end in such an embarrassing and wild way, but that leads to the biggest question on my mind as I get ready to play this game on a whole new generation of consoles: How will GTA Online end.

There is always the possibility that GTA Online will move forward with Grand Theft Auto VI.

Today, GTA Online feels too old and rickety to be carried forward into a future GTA VI.

When it does finally depart, I’ll miss GTA Online more than any other game, which is strange to think about.

Grand Theft Auto Online is a better game today than it was back in 2012, 2014, or even 2017.

In 2020, Grand Theft Auto Online feels both like a dinosaur from a different era, but weirdly, also just as relevant as ever.

The only true clone of GTA Online is Red Dead Online, another game being developed by Rockstar.

And it seems, based on Rockstar porting it to the new machines, that I’ll end up putting another 600 hours into this game before it’s all over

GTA Online is a great game and a world I love returning to, even when some 12-year old decides to blow me up