Max Payne 3 multiplayer ‘Crews’ to be available in Grand Theft Auto 5

As part of Rockstar's plan to innovate multiplayer gameplay across all of its titles, the multiplayer crews you set up in Max Payne 3 will carry over to Grand Theft Auto 5.

For those unfamiliar, crews are a groups of players that you can join up with via the Social Club – Rockstar's online service – that provide benefits both in-game and out, expanding beyond what the PS3 or Xbox 360 friends list offers.

Regardless of whether your in a private crew of just you and your friends or a public crew open to everyone, performing tasks with crew members – like avenging a fallen Crew member – will earn you XP bonuses.

It's a feature designed to "create more drama out of the interactions that go down in typical multiplayer matches," said Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser.  And it spreads far beyond Max Payne 3.

"The beauty of this system is that crews persist over time and across future games. Multiplayer is an ever-more important part of all our games moving forward. And by creating crews through Social Club, the crews that you create in Max Payne 3 will be ready and available for you to play in Grand Theft Auto V from day one," Houser revealed. "It's all part of our larger approach to make multiplayer deeper and richer than what's currently available, much more easily accessible to the newcomer and rewarding for the hardcore."

"We made a promise not to talk too much about forthcoming games until a little further down the track but, yes, crews will feature in Grand Theft Auto V multiplayer," said Houser. "We are firm believers in the potential of third-person multiplayer and the attachment it can create to character, stories and worlds. This is at the heart of what we're doing with crews, and we think it opens up limitless new possibilities for the future. It's right at the heart of our goal to bring greater weight and context to multiplayer games while still staying true to what competitive multiplayer does so well."

As someone who invests a majority of my time in the multiplayer portion of games, I definitely appreciate Rockstar's bold attempt at taking multiplayer to the next level. While bonus XP is an added plus, the idea of a more narrative driven multiplayer, even if it's me crafting my own adventure through the Crew, is appealing.

"We want to create more drama out of the interactions that go down in typical multiplayer matches," Houser said.  In short, it's about "embellishing the drama that emerges naturally in multiplayer."  It's taking a multiplayer match and adding a sense of purpose, outside of just winning.

There's still no release date for Grand Theft Auto 5, but Max Payne 3 hits Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on May 18th.

[Source 1, Source 2]