GTA Online's controversial new update includes a lore-breaking homage

GTA: Online recently added what will likely be its final heist, Kortz Center, and features an interesting Easter egg that cracks the game’s canon wide open.

Most Grand Theft Auto fans will know this already, but what you experience in the third-person games is said to be set in a different universe to the 2D games.

Both universes share the same locations, for instance Liberty City appears in Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

This made it especially surprising to see two characters from the very first Grand Theft Auto game appear as pieces of art during The Kortz Center Heist.

As shared by GTAVI_Countdown on X, the Crisp art collection features two paintings. One of Albert Crisp and one of Archie Crisp. For those who aren’t aware these are two characters featured in an expansion for Grand Theft Auto, and are based on the real-life London criminals Ronald Kray and Reginald Kray.

Now it’s a cool Easter egg no doubt, but it also has bigger implications for the wider world of Grand Theft Auto should you want it to.

Are these paintings of two imaginary brothers the artist simply dreamt up one day? Or are they portraits of famous criminals that terrorised London back in the 1990s? The implication is unclear, but you could definitely use these paintings to argue the 3D and 2D games are more connected than Rockstar had us believe.

We bet the theorists out there are even surmising that it’s got something to do with Grand Theft Auto VI. As if Rockstar is teasing characters that could appear or be referenced in the game’s story.

In all likelihood it’s probably just a clever Easter egg Rockstar threw in to make us point at the screen, and if so it worked.

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GTA: Online’s final disappointing update has us desperate for GTA 6

The Crisp paintings are some of the few good things about GTA: Online’s final heist. Players have been thoroughly let down with the new content provided and have hailed previous updates as much better.

That’s quite the development considering Rockstar the opportunity to give the current-gen GTA: Online a proper send-off here. It’s almost got us thinking this won’t be the final update after all.

The core issues are the heist itself, the prepwork required and the payout for all of your hardwork.

Rockstar Games intentionally keeps the rewards as minimal as possible because if you’re making too much in-game money from heists, business and missions, you’re less likely to spend real-life money on Shark Cards to bolster your fake bank account.

The Kortz Center heist has been especially disappointing though, so much so that many are giving up on the online mode entirely until GTA VI comes out.

GTA VI launches on November 19 and its marketing campaign is expected to start this month. So far Rockstar hasn’t said a word about the next iteration of Online, though it’ll likely launch sometime after the base game, but before the PC port.

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