Despite Rockstar Games' attempts to fix the GTA Online problems, gamers are now reporting loss of their multiplayer character and its associated rank, items and other content.
The GTA 5 developer is currently working on a fix that will not only restore the loss progress but stop the problem from ever occurring again.
"We have received reports from some players who experience losing characters, progress, items and/or in-game cash during the first few days after release," said Rockstar Games in a statement. "We are working diligently to identify and correct the causes for these losses, as well as to establish how best to restore any lost progress and value."
There are some causes of the problem to be aware of, and they can be found here.
Rockstar Games released a title patch for GTA Online on Friday October 4, but its yet to resolve all the problems gamers are experiencing on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions.
Despite a delay for Xbox 360 users, the update was available to all by lunchtime Saturday October 5 in the UK.
Addressing multiple issues gamers were having with GTA Online, here's everything the GTA 5 Title Update 1.02 resolved:
- Fix to address the issue where players were stuck launching a session before the Mall or Nothing race in the online tutorial.
- Fix to address an issue where bank & cash were deleted incorrectly in some cases.
- Fix to address incorrect amounts of cash being dropped when the player dies in Missions and Last Team Standing.
- Fixes an issue where the Character Switch Wheel would disappear after a failed load.
- Fixes an issue where attempting to enter GTA Online via the Character Switch Wheel caused a black screen.
- Fixes an issue where temporary characters were overwriting main characters.
- Fixes an issue where players were losing apartments and the money they spent on them.
- Fixes an issue that caused Story Mode missions to be missed in some instances.
- Removes the autosave that occurred when transitioning into GTA Online from within GTAV Story Mode to prevent the chance of Story Mode saves becoming corrupted.
- Several tweaks to GTA Online including improving overall stability.
On Thursday October 3, the developer resolved some of the initial issues with GTA Online, but it didn't fixed all the problems gamers are having with the GTA 5 multiplayer experience.
Offering a regularly updated GTA Online Launch Status page, Rockstar said it is working through all the issues gamers have reported.
Errors include Rockstar Cloud server issues, failure to host online sessions, session time outs, jobs failing to start or load, but we've included the full list further down the page.
Rockstar has resolved some issues, but is continuing to work around the clock to make the experience smoother. Here's everything that's been fixed so far:
- For PlayStation 3 users, a PlayStation Network server issue was detected that was limiting the amount of possible concurrent users. This was preventing most players from accessing GTA Online altogether and as of this morning, that problem was resolved.
- There is an issue that is preventing some players from getting through the first tutorial mission across both platforms. Many players have been able to get through this with repeated retries, and we are working on unblocking this for everyone as soon as possible.
- This morning, we experienced some instability across the GTA Online services which is affecting even people who have progressed beyond the tutorial mission. We are identifying these issues now and are working to restore stability for users as soon as possible.
- For the time being and until we have been able to get everybody access to GTA Online and things are running smoothly, we have disabled the option of purchasable GTA$ cash packs. Players can however keep on earning GTA$ by pulling off Jobs and other profitable gameplay activities rather than purchasing cash packs.
Previously, Rockstar Games released a full list of all the known GTA Online problems and said it is "working around the clock" to resolve them.
Posting the list of known issues on the Rockstar Support pages, the GTA 5 developer added a new statement that expressed its dedication to fixing all the problems with GTA Online.
"We are continuing to look into these issues and are working around the clock on resolving them as quickly as possible", reads the statement. "This includes close monitoring of our Support systems, forums, social media, and in-game data to measure traffic along with Community sentiment to ensure ongoing improvements to stability. Please stay tuned for more updates."
The list of issues is as follows:
- "Rockstar Cloud Servers Unavailable" error message
- "Failed to Host a GTA Online Session" error messages
- Errors saying "Timed out when matchmaking for a compatible GTA Online Session to join"
- Errors about jobs failing to start or load
- Misc. network and server-related error messages, disconnections, or cloud server errors
- Errors saying "Mission Failed" as soon as the mission begins during a session
- Long matchmaking load screens, eventually timing out after 10-15 minutes
- Offline (disc-based) and online content mixing on the Jobs list
- Ending up in a free-roam session with no jobs/markers on the map while playing as a temporary character during a cloud outage
- Freezing while loading into first race in GTAO with "waiting for other players" on the screen
- Seeing the same cut-scene twice in a row and then getting stuck on a load screen
- Getting stuck transitioning into the lobby or race while other players are joining/leaving
- Race Corona (start area, marker) not showing up for first race
- General issues with the Social Club site and Social Club features (slow loading, failed logins, emails not arriving, etc).
Along with these issues, the GTA Online update is reportedly corrupting the GTA 5 single player saves of those who have already downloaded and still isn’t working.
Rockstar Games already anticipated there would be issues with GTA Online, the multiplayer experience for GTA 5, but fresh reports suggest the problems gamers are experiencing are pretty huge.
Released on October 1, several Twitter users and forum commenters have complained that their GTA 5 game saves are being corrupted after attempting to access GTA Online.
“So GTA Online isn’t working for me and it’s corrupted my single player save. Excellent,” wrote Chris Schilling, a games journalist, on Twitter. “Can’t switch characters, and the mission marker disappears when I drive into it.”
Other gamers are saying their GTA V game returns them to a part of the story far beyond the point they had previously reached.
It’s not clear as yet whether the single player saves for GTA 5 are permanently corrupted or its only temporary, but we imagine Rockstar Games is feverishly working on a patch for all the issues.
Other GTA Online issues occurred so far include the expected server problems, such as error messages saying the cloud servers are unavailable, race markers not showing propery, “failed to host” messages and permanent “waiting for other players” messages.
There have also been reports of matchmaking time out errors and general issues with the Social Club.
Rockstar Games has added a dedicated page to its Rockstar Support for all the known GTA Online problems and promises to keep gamers regularly updated.
“We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience while we work to resolve this,” reads the support site.
Next, read our pick of the best games of 2013.
