GTA 5 Online News: Gameplay and Loading Problems Emerge as Other Sessions Get Fixes

Grand Theft Auto 5's online mode has had numerous problems since launching on Oct 1. Besides the fairly common issue of server overload, the open world game has suffered from issues ranging from players unable to start missions and races, to the game claiming to be unable to reach the cloud services. Rockstar has updated its support page after solving some key problems, but others still remain.

One of the biggest problems players have had is getting past the very first tutorial race found in the game. Several different errors have been reported surrounding this critical first race, including the game freezing with the "waiting for other players" message on screen, a cutscene playing twice then the game freezing, and players getting stuck in the race or lobby as other players leave or join.

Rockstar has posted an update for anyone whose encountered the error messages in the past:

"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."

The developer also posted several other updates concerning efforts to smooth out Grand Theft Auto 5 Online. A server error from the PlayStation Network has been fixed that limited the amount of concurrent players that could appear in the game. The company also said that many players are having trouble making it through the very first tutorial mission in the game, but stated that players can eventually make it through by retrying it repeatedly. Rockstar also stated that they are working on making the game more stable even for those who make it past the first tutorial and the racing tutorial.

Finally, Rockstar revealed that they have temporarily disabled the microtransactions found in the game until the servers are more stable:

"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."