Rockstar’s ineffable multiplayer game mode is currently struggling valiantly due to a catastrophic new bug that seems to primarily be affecting PC users, although there have been a handful of cases reported from Xbox and PlayStation owners; all owned properties have been deleted.
The number of owned properties that many have turns this bug from a minor inconvenience to a massive issue, as properties are one of the very few ways that players can make money outside of purchasing a consistent stream of Shark Cards, Grand Theft Auto Online‘s included microtransactions scheme that has reportedly made them billions since GTA5 released.
Many users are reporting the issue on Twitter and Reddit, and Rockstar SUpport has tweeted that they are aware of the issue, and are attempting to fix it.
We are aware of an issue in GTA Online for PC where some vehicles, weapons and properties are not displaying in character inventories and are actively working to resolve it.
— Rockstar Support (@RockstarSupport) April 15, 2020
It’s presumed that the servers will be rolled back to a time when players’ properties were unaffected, although Rockstar doesn’t necessarily have the reputation of being eagerly prepositioned to help their sizeable player base. At the moment, the primary stance that many fans are taking is to simply not log in until this issue has been fixed by Rockstar, thus avoiding the loss of all of their properties (and the cars that are stored inside).
Yet this issue is not affecting every player that logs in at this time; my personal character on GTAO is unaffected by the bug, as are several others that I regularly play with. Bearing down on who this bug effects can help discern where it is coming from, and how best to avoid the loss of all of your properties.
The event that seems to have triggered it is widely agreed on; Rockstar recently announced that they would be offering everyone that logged in an extra $500,000 simply for logging in that would be delivered to their Maze Bank; this offer began on April 13th, and the first claims of properties being deleted were reported on April 14. The issue, thus, is believed to be found somewhere in the most recent money transfer to Maze Bank from Rockstar, to players.
As is the norm with every bug that affects players, many are making accusations far too venomous to be accurate; this bug isn’t some outlandish attempt by Rockstar to force everyone to purchase a new influx of Shark Cards, nor is Take-Two Interactive suddenly going to offer microtransactions in the form of passes to re-enter previously owned properties (really guys?). By everything that has been seen, it’s simply a bug, which tends to show their faces from time to time. Big deep breath, and wait for the inevitable fix.
