How Rockstar Completely Screwed Up the Launch of GTA V Online…

Over the last two weeks millions of eager fans waited for Rockstar Games to launch Grand Theft Auto V Online, the multiplayer mode to their best selling game Grand Theft Auto V.  Since the game went on sale September 17, GTA V has become the fastest selling entertainment product in history, reaching $1 billion in revenue within its first three days.

While players love GTA V’s action-packed story mode, most have finished the game and are ready to move onto the game’s multiplayer mode, GTA V Online. The problem is most players can’t log into GTA Online due to enormous issues with Rockstar’s servers, an issue Rockstar tried to prevent by delaying the release of GTA V Online by two weeks (Oct. 1).

After five years and $265 million spent in development, you’d think the crew at Rockstar had spent enough capital to guarantee a flawless product launch. That’s not the case. Millions of fans are still unable to log into GTA V Online due to a GIANT bottleneck on the Rockstar servers. While the publisher warned “plenty of issues are bound to occur” once the game was launched, some of these could have easily been prevented.

It all starts with GTA V Online forcing players to complete two tutorial missions before being allowed into the game. These missions, which are pretty much pointless unless you’ve NEVER played a GTA game before, is where gamers are having the most issues. Since you can not play the online game before completing these missions, millions of gamers are getting stuck at the leaderboard screen, causing a bottleneck on the servers. This bottleneck is what’s causing the tutorial missions to not load in the first place. A vicious cycle that will continue until Rockstar elevates the demand on their servers.

Fans are taking to social media to voice their opinions on the GTA V Online launch.

Steel42 wrote, “Garbage. Day 3 and I’m still at the 1st mission glitch where you don’t even get into the car, and then it sends you to a blurry cityscape screen and freezes. You should’ve launched the online mode at the same time you released the game, and then maybe there wouldn’t be so much stress on the servers. Just think. Another week or so of this and you’ll match EAs Sim City failure. What a disappointment.”

It seems once you finally get online though, the wait is worth it.

Stealth421 wrote, “After countless attempts and creating new characters I’ve finally got online, it’s been so frustrating but it’s worth it. I still have encountered problems when online, Rockstar has got a lot to fix, I hope they do it soon so more people can enjoy. ”

Some GTA V fans have even decided to parody the problem:

This all could have been easily avoided though. If Rockstar would have simply bypassed the forced tutorial, the bottleneck would have never occurred. The publisher should have made the tutorial optional for new gamers instead of forcing everyone through it.

Now fans just have to wait until they “luck out” and are able to bypass the issue. Some claim that if you keep creating new characters and try to reload the game you’ll eventually get in. Others say if you delete the title screen update and download a new version you’ll be able to play. So far, I’ve had no such luck.

Are you able to play GTA V Online? Are you having the same problem millions of other games are having? Voice your opinion on how Rockstar is handling the launch of GTA V Online below…

Also, I’ve added a list of all known issues gamers are having with Grand Theft Auto V Online (via Rockstar):

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Question: I’m having problems getting into GTA Online! Is there a list of issues Rockstar is looking into, so I can stay informed about the status of fixes for known launch issues?

Answer: We will be updating this page as often as possible with the status of issues we are aware of and looking into.  

General network/cloud server issues

• “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

Issues getting past the first Tutorial Race

10/2/13 Note: Some players have reported being able to get into the Tutorial race by re-downloading the Title Update, which can be deleted from Xbox Home or the PS3 XMB (Game Data Utility, NOT save data). Others reported having luck by selecting “Swap Character” from the Online tab within the pause menu, deleting the character that was unable to get into the tutorial, and then creating a new character. Some who were experience this issue have been able to get in just by trying again later.

• 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

Social Club Issues

• General issues with the Social Club site and Social Club features (slow loading, failed logins, emails not arriving, etc). For more information on Social Club status, please see: http://support.rockstargames.com/hc/en-us/articles/200357093

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience while we work to resolve this.  If you would like to receive an automatic email notification whenever major updates are posted, please log into the Support Site and click Subscribe at the top of this page.

Last Updated 4:30 PM ET 10/2/13: Here are the latest updates as of this afternoon.

• 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.