It’s starting to look like a hit, gangland style. Remember Rockstar Social Club? It’s gone. It’s been clipped, as a gangster might say. Visit the official Rockstar website and you won’t see it mentioned. 15 years after it appeared, Rockstar Social Club sleeps with the fishes.
The name, that is. The term “Rockstar Social Club” has been almost completely removed from the official Rockstar website, as noticed by Twitter user “Ben” who imparts all sorts of Rockstar-related news.
For example, instances of “Social Club members” have been replaced on the website with “Rockstar Games members.” The Social Club logo is now gone on the official website’s login page, replaced with just a Rockstar Logo. The site used to say: “Whether you’re discovering Grand Theft Auto V or traversing the world of Red Dead Redemption 2, track your progress on the Rockstar Games Social Club.” Now it says “track your progress on the Rockstar Games website.”
I’m tellin’ ya, a button man was waiting in the alley for Social Club one day and, bada-bing, it blew its brains all over its nice Ivy League suit. RIP.
I do see a couple instances of “Rockstar Social Club” still lingering, however, like clues at a crime scene. If I log out of the launcher it’s briefly visible when I’m logging back in, though it vanishes once I connect. And apparently it can still be seen in the Red Dead Redemption 2 menu, though I haven’t verified it myself because that would mean reinstalling it, and if I do that then I’ll play it, and then the next time I look up from my PC it’ll be April 2024.
But apart from those few little examples, it looks like Rockstar is erasing the name Social Club ahead of the reveal of GTA 6 trailer next month. Why does this matter? Well… it doesn’t, honestly. It’s just a name, and it appears all of Social Club’s features still exist, it’s just not called Social Club anymore.
It’s just that we’re so desperate for some actual information about GTA 6 that we’re scrabbling around for any crumbs to consume in the meantime. Heck, someone on Twitter even noted that the little R logo on Rockstar’s website used to be black and yellow and is now black and white.
Are you happy, Rockstar? This is what we’ve been reduced to, staring desperately at your logo until it changes colors. We can’t wait until December. Release that trailer. Release it now.