Summary
Grand Theft Auto 5, and by extensionGTA Online,just received an unexpected update onPCthat finally adds the BattlEye anti-cheat software, and players are hoping that this is being done to stop the hackers that have long plagued servers.
It remains to be seen if this is enough to stop the hackers, but at the very least, it suggests thatRockstaris doing something to address the long-standing issue in GTA Online. Until this is addressed, however, many are avoiding public servers, and sticking to playing privately with friends instead.
GTA Online Now Has Anti-Cheat, Thanks To GTA 5 PC Update
It isn’t often that the addition of anti-cheat software is met with this much excitement in a playerbase, but fans here are certainly relieved. It’s easy to see why, as hackers have ruined GTA Online for legitimate players for years. At best, they’ll use cheats to grief you until you quit. At worst, they’re able to access your IP address and drop your location in chat.
The only downside is that BattlEye has broken online play for Steam Deck and Linux players. Hopefully, Rockstar addresses this soon.
As TheGamer’s Executive Editor James Troughton found in 2021, these cheaters were using the personal information they gathered on players to threaten and dox them online. They also found that mod menus were easily available to purchase online, something that many players are only all too familiar with now.
BattlEye is used in plenty of other online games, includingFortnite,PUBG,Destiny 2, and more recently,XDefiant. GTA Online’s use of BattlEye comes nine years after GTA 5 was ported to PC in 2015, so this is certainly a long time coming.
Grand Theft Auto 5
WHERE TO PLAY
One of the biggest-selling games in history, Grand Theft Auto 5 takes you to open-world San Andreas. Assume the role of three characters, Trevor, Franklin, and Michael, as they take different paths in their criminal lives. The streets of Los Santos await in GTA 5.
