An article on IGN hears from Dan Houser of Rockstar Games, who explains their plans to help players stay connected with crews created on the Rockstar Social Club starting with Max Payne 3. They specifically mention how this functionality exceeds Xbox and PSN friends lists, so it's the familiar mystery over whether this is a PC feature as well, but in the meantime they do offer an interesting vision of persistent rivalries this can create:

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. 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."

The ultimate goal is to nurture the same embittered rivalries across its forthcoming games then? "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," reveals 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."