I think 16 is a fair number. I"m not an expert,but I doubt the online portion could handle more then that,with everything that's going on. I'm sure the future pc version probably could. I'm getting the game for the single portion though.

I look forward to single player more too but i will playing a decent amount of multiplayer too (i have over $5 million on GTA IV multiplayer!). I was hoping for at least 32 players though, just because given the apparent size of the map, 16 seems too low. 16 players in Red Dead Redemption free roam was barely enough and that is supposed to be alot smaller than GTA V's world. 

GTA Online general information

• Rockstar started thinking about making Grand Theft Auto Online when they began making GTA 3
• The GTA Online demo shown to press was the PS3 version
• PS3 isn't the lead platform, GTA 5 is the first in the series to have a parallel development
• Rockstar says "there's very, very little difference in the development state of them both. They're both very similar. It would be hard to tell them apart."
• GTA Online looks like GTAV with almost no compromises, though details on cars may be streamed in slightly differently
• Rockstar is already thinking about the future "in terms of missions, new content, clothes, apartments, for the next while". It plans to use data from players in building the future of GTA Online
• Rockstar wants a player's online identity to exist and to be shared throughout its games, Max Payne 3's crews is an example of this
• Rockstar wants to keep adding new things to build GTA Online into a world and has set it up with no limitations: "We could, if we wanted, simulate the entire world, different countries, whatever. Whether we do that or not... But we've got a bunch of old stuff that we're toying with using."
• Rockstar is focusing on getting the current gen version out, and will "see what happens in the future" with regards to next-gen

GTA Online gameplay details

• GTA Online is a persistent online world for 16 active players, but hundreds of thousands of players (however many take part) exist in the larger universe
• It retains almost all of the core gameplay from single-player; Looting, co-op heists, deathmatches, races, gang attacks, crew vs crew playlists, sports (like tennis, BASE jumping, golf and more), plus 'ambient' events like armoured van robberies, crate drops, import/export car acquisition, bounties
• GTA Online looks like GTA 5, with no compromises
• Characters lip-sync "broadly" when their player speak
• Before starting heists or hold-ups, players can choose masks to disguise themselves. These can be ditched later to lose a Wanted star
• Police have a "cone of detection" which players need to stay out of
• Whoever does the job gets the cash, and can choose how to split it
• Cars can be insured and replaced
• Players complete missions and activities for Reputation Points, money and material assets
• Players can create their own missions using Creator tools
• You open up the Creator and can place all your spawn points, place some props, place cars, place planes, place anything you want around the world. It is published to the Rockstar Social Club Cloud where others can download it
• Players can pick preferred creators
• Initially players will be able to create races and deathmatches
• Rockstar will introduce new tools and content over time
• GTA Online will launch two weeks after GTA 5
• GTA Online is accessed through a fourth character slot in the selection wheel
• There may be a small download when Online is available two weeks after launch, possible a small unlock code (TBC - details to follow)
• There is a character creation system to create a multiplayer avatar, stats from the campaign will not carry over
• The world of GTA Online is set slightly before the GTA 5 story
• GTA Online will take you through some introductory missions to start with characters from the game explaining mechanics and systems
• It flows like single-player in terms of progression, but not story
• Players will be scored and ranked on individual mission types in GTA Online
• Rockstar has an "internal score" that can rank people on shooting, driving, flying, parachuting
• It will release enough data "for people to know exactly where they stand within all their skills"
• Stats and other player information will be available through Rockstar's Social Club, it currently has no plans to release a dedicated mobile app, but you can use tablets etc to view the Social Club site
• Rockstar has implemented "good cheater management" to make sure people behave
• A "Passive mode" can be activated so players can't shoot people, but also can't be shot
• Carrying around lots of cash can be a risk, but players can visit the bank to deposit money and keep it safe
• Personal vehicles can't be stolen by others as they can be locked, however they can still be damaged or blown up
• Players can be given a "Bad Sport" stat for misbehaving and if they're too bad they will be punished
• Other players will be able to identify a player with a bad sport stat
• Cars can be bought or stolen. When stolen, players can be modified them with a custom spray jobs and plates. If they aren't changed they may activate a wanted level if spotted by the police
• A character can be employed to repair your cars and deliver them, he won't deal with stolen cars, however. You can phone him to drop off cars to you.
• Camera angles during driving can be manually changed, as in GTA 4
• Rockstar's long-term vision is to let players turn their finished games into a movie. Although it says it is "doable" it's just a dream at the moment
• You can't share Weazel news online, you can only watch the feeds from your apartment when friends or crew members have a Wanted level
• Rockstar is still balancing the money earned from missions so it fits in with the flow of purchasing property and cars
• Investing in stock and shares is also available online, you can buy shares in a car company, target that company's cars to have insurance replace them and the stock price will go up
• Players can form cartels but will Rockstar will assume the role of "government" to "make sure there's nothing untoward happening"
• Press seeing GTA Online were only shown a bit of the map, " there's a whole other chunk of map" that wasn't seen
• "There's a lot of toys out there, and a lot of areas for people to use, to make their missions"
• The apartment TV airs a detective show, but Rockstar North's president didn't actually know what it was since the team is still adding new content into the game
• Players have access to a planning board similar to the one in single-player. It has all the maps, people, and the dots to show you where you've got to go
• GTA Online missions will be "simpler" than the heists in the main game at first
• Underwater gameplay isn't going to be big part of the initial GTA Online content suite, but Rockstar will start looking at it after the initial batch of "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of missions" are delivered
• Activities such as two-player tennis will be available in GTA Online
• Players engaging in side-activities "won't be terrorised", they can enjoy a tennis game without being griefed
• Using their phone, players can call characters and access services to help them complete missions. For example, two players can enlist in some AI-controlled characters to complete an eight-player mission, or call in an airstrike, or turn off blips to hide from other players.
• New characters offering new services are introduced as players progress
• Rockstar is planning "huge" things for "Crews, playlists, challenges"
• The ability to mix and match missions to create playlists is a possibility

Woah, this is a huge project.

Spanish gaming website 3D Juegos has spoken with Rockstar Games and gotten what appears to be an entire slew of information about the studio's upcoming game, Grand Theft Auto 5.

Much of the information pertains to the game's online multiplayer mode, dubbed Grand Theft Auto Online, with exclusive details about the game.

Notably, the studio revealed that there are about 700 missions in the game's online mode, with 500 always available. These missions can be downlaodable from the Rockstar Social Club to populate your online world.

Tidbits such as that, and other information has been revealed. Here's a compiled list of what the interview bore:

• The camera will zoom out and pan away to your online character seamlessly. During the animation, a matchmaking process will be in progress.
• Matchmaking will depend on which friends are playing, and what people have ranks near yours.
• You can do almost anything you can do in single player in GTA Online.
• Each mission requires a rank depending on difficulty and complexity. The bigger your rank, the more difficult the missions will be.
• There are around 700 missions in GTA Online.
• Missions will be ordered randomly as you play Online.
• For certain heists you might need certain weapons, vehicles or characters such as a sniper or a driver. This will also depend on the mission creator if you download the mission from the Social Club.
• Some missions are so complex they need plenty of good communication.
• There will be descriptions to help each character on its heist function.
• You can change weather, time of day, time you want it to rain or to be a certain weather state, radio station to be tuned at the start of the race or mission in the Content Creator.
• There is something called "team lives". If you have 4 team lives and 4 people, if everyone dies there will be 0 lives left, or if you die 4 times, the team will have 0 lives left, which means if anyone dies, it's mission failed.
• You can watch races and deathmatches on your apartment TV.
• There are masks to hide from the cops.
• The Online will be run on the Social Club servers, data will be stored on the cloud. There are datacenters from NY to San Diego, and more Rockstar studios.

Dude....

"◾Some missions are so complex they need plenty of good communication."

WTF man I cannot wait for this.... My mind is running wild with possibilities....

Everything I hear about this game is great.

Is this the official thread, then?

I suppose it is. But all this thread was for to gather all the information about GTA V that was on the internet, since most of it is not published on rockstars site. 

im looking forward to it!

Crews

Crew Leaders can assign special rank to any and all members (Crew members will otherwise all be defaulted to the designation of Muscle) across the following four tiers:

Commissioners:  The Crew’s most trusted member(s) - that essential right-hand man or woman that the Leader relies on for Vice Presidential advisement and executive action. Commissioners have the power to manage and administrate all aspects of the Crew on behalf of the Leader, including the ability to promote members internally or invite new members in.

Lieutenants: Made members with specific privileges to keep the Crew in check and hand out promotions or demotions amongst sub-ordinate ranks. Crew Representatives and the mob of Muscle would be wise to keep their Lieutenants (and above) sweet.

Representatives: A tier of Crew members who have shown and proved their commitment to the clique - whether with ace performance in competitive modes, or just by rocking their Crew's emblem faithfully since day one. Crew Leaders can assign these special players as Representatives who will have basic permissions to aid recruitment efforts.

Muscle: The rank-and-file mob of Crew members who are happy to play their position of causing some havoc Online, doing their Crew's emblem justice and fighting for its good name. Muscle-level members may not have nor want any administrative power but they're often the heart and soul of what makes your Crew fearsome. Ambitious Muscle who are looking to prove themselves to the Crew Leader and rise up the ranks may even prove a threat to their Crew superiors, if any are deemed to be slacking on their responsibilities or performance.

Beyond the overall Crew cap, there is no limit on how many Crew members you can designate to any one tier - so decide whether your squad will be a communal and anarchic free-for-all or a rigidly structured and exclusive Hierarchy designed to reward the chosen few and keep the Muscle thirsty for recognition?

To see your Crew’s Hierarchy, select Hierarchy from the navigation options directly below the active Crew Emblem on your Crew’s profile page. If you are a Commissioner or Leader and want to organize your Crew, head to the Crew Management page and click Hierarchy. Here you'll see the full chain of command for that Crew, from the upper echelons in charge of managing operations to the ground force responsible for getting the job done - along with a detailed breakdown on your Crew, with options to promote and demote members via the up and down arrows and more detailed information hover boxes that explain exactly what each rank can and can't do.

On this page you may notice a colored bar under each Crew tag, which decreases in length as you get further down the Crew structure. This bar is visible across Social Club and will be visible in-game in Grand Theft Auto Online as a public symbol of your rank inside the Crew. The color of the bar is determined by another new feature of Social Club: Crew Colors. These can be set in the Crew management pages, and will have significant prominence in other places yet to be announced.

Social Club members may also notice a few new design updates today as well to user profiles and other pages on the network - as always, if you have feedback you'd like to bend our ear on regarding these or other features or improvements that you would like to see around Social Club, please get in touch with us via Mouthoff where we're always happy to have a look at what you have to say.

We'd also like to remind all Crew members to make sure your contact email information is up to date in your Social Club account settings and also encourage you to link your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts to your Social Club profile so that you can receive notifications on Crew invites and messages.

Make no mistake, respect is still everything and getting your Crew ranks organized early can make all the difference for how you stand out in a crowd, whether you're going toe to-toe with other Crews or planning to just wreak havoc under your Crew banner with a few friends in Los Santos and Blaine County this fall.

From ~http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/51281/introducing-crew-hierarchies.html