Although the release of Heists for "GTA 5" online was slightly delayed again for an "early 2015" launch, a recent interview between IGN and lead mission designer Imran Sarwar revealed many details and sheds some light on how Heists will work in online gameplay.

There were rumors that there would only be six Heist missions to start, but according to Sarwar, there will be "five unique strands" consisting of 20 Heist missions totaling 20 hours of gameplay at the launch. Considering there are four different roles in a mission, players would essentially get 100 different experiences among the 20 missions.

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Each Heist mission requires four players that must be a rank 12 or higher, and one player is required to be the designated Heist leader. The leader must have a high-end apartment so there's enough room to utilize the planning board like in the Story Mode. In the apartment is where each player will first meet to begin prep missions to eventually pull off the Heist finale.

Although the Heist leader has the advantage of inviting players, assigning roles, and even being in charge of every player's pay cut, the leader must also front all the set-up costs it would take in order to complete the mission successfully. Crew members will receive cash payments after completing each prep mission, while the leader doesn't receive a payout until the whole mission is complete.

"Switching between the roles of crew member and heist leader will give players a totally different experience, and we had to make sure there were real incentives to playing each position so that players would see every aspect of how a heist comes together and not just want to stick to the same role each time," Sarwar said.

There's going to be several different styles of gameplay and objectives within the 20 Heist missions. Some missions will have all players working on a certain task simultaneously, while some missions require the players to split up into two groups to complete separate high-value objectives.

A release date hasn't been announced other than "early 2015," but many GTA enthusiasts are now speculating that the Heists DLC is likely going to be released along with the launch of the remastered version of "GTA 5" for PC on Jan. 26.

TagsGrand Theft Auto V, GTA 5 Online, GTA Heists, update, Rockstar Games