Rockstar is to gift in-game cash to GTA 5 players as compensation for GTA Online’s troubled launch. Qualifying players will receive half a million GTA$ (worth £6.75) in two deposits designed to keep the in-game economy balanced. Rockstar hopes to make the first one by the end of next week, once it has confirmed that issues causing game progress loss have been fixed, and the second one by the end of the month.
The studio said in a post on Rockstar Newswire: "For players who experienced cloud server errors, connection issues, and lost game progress and characters in these first days of GTA Online, we hope this GTA$ helps to facilitate a fresh start or makes your continued life in Los Santos and Blaine County extra sweet." Here are some additional details on how the “stimulus package” will be delivered:
- You must play or have played Grand Theft Auto Online at any time during the month of October 2013 in order to qualify for the GTA$500,000 deposit in your in-game bank account.
- Players will first have to install a forthcoming GTAV title update which we expect to happen next week. That title update (1.04) is expected to fix the remaining instances of issues that have caused vehicle purchase loss and will also enable the functionality through which we'll be providing this GTA$ stimulus cash to players.
- We will announce at the Rockstar Newswire when each deposit is made.
- Each of the two GTA$250,000 deposits will be made by Rockstar and should automatically appear in the in-game GTA Online bank accounts of eligible players. Beyond downloading the forthcoming title update mentioned above, there should not be any additional special action required by eligible players to redeem.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Desperate GTA 6 fans give up on predicting the elusive action-adventure game's release date through normal means, instead resort to astrology
Former GTA 6 designer says the open world sequel will "blow people away" and "people will be talking about it for ages" because Rockstar has "raised the bar again"