Earlier this week marked the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 debut of Grand Theft Auto V, making the population of Los Santos and Blaine County much, much larger. The introduction to this next generation of GTA V players also ushered in first-person mode, an improved character creator, support for up to 30 players at a time in GTA Online, and plenty of improvements, tweaks, and content additions to the already full game.



But it's the upcoming Heists DLC that has many fans talking as the multiplayer online mode has been promised for several months with not much heard from developer Rockstar Games.



"We've got some really exciting stuff in the works to continue adding to, expanding and evolving the world of Grand Theft Auto Online - including the highly anticipated launch of Online Heists which will be available for all four consoles as the first GTA Online Update to happen after the game launches on PS4 and Xbox One," Rockstar said in a blog post on the official site last week.



But when Update 1.18 came and went with no sign of Online Heists, players got a bit concerned. The 65 MB 1.18 patch was released to tie up some loose ends on the console version and squash some usual launch bugs.



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So far, GTA Online has been a wild success for the publisher and a recent blog post from Rockstar shows off some stats on the online multiplayer feature that debuted with GTA V. From October 1, 2013 to October 31, 2014, the game has enjoyed over 33 million global players who have played over 2 billion hours in 224 countries. These are impressive numbers for any game, but it goes to show that the GTA series just keeps getting more and more popular with each new installment.



"Over the past year, with each and every Update released for GTA Online were tons of positive changes made as a direct result of player feedback that our development team consulted constantly for input," Rockstar said about the popularity of GTA Online. "From specific content added to the game to countless enhancements such as improvements to GTA Online's RP and GTA$ payouts, insurance system, passive mode, Creator features, damage system - and so much more were all made to the game thanks to your very helpful suggestions. We've said since the very beginning that Grand Theft Auto Online is as much yours as the players and residents of San Andreas, as it is ours as Rockstar Games -we're very excited to continue the collaboration ahead."



The Heists DLC is said to bring an online mode that allows players to group together to perform special quests like bank robberies. A new thermite bomb model was discovered in the game's source code by a player named St3v3hacker who speculates that this currently unused weapon will be introduced with Heists. The thought is, this thermite bomb will be used to blow open safes in the game.



The Heists DLC is now expected to drop with Update 1.19, according to insiders. Since GTA V updates typically happen on Tuesdays, the 1.19 patch is expected to introduce Online Heists on either the 2nd, 9th, or 16th, just in time for one final holiday season push to sell the game before the new year.

