• News

The new Rockstar game launcher makes GTA5 always online [UPDATE]

PC gamers playing Grand Theft Auto 5 through the new Rockstar Games' launcher have noticed that it sets their game to always online.

Josh Hawkins

September 19, 2019 10:50 AM

4

[UPDATE] Rockstar reached out to us to let us know that the issue keeping people from being able to play Grand Theft Auto V offline has been resolved and users should be able to play without any issues now. This is great news as players who want to enjoy the singleplayer without having to stay connected can now do so without any issues. It should also be noted that Rockstar had previously gone on the record with press stating that the issue was a bug and not a change to GTA5's DRM.

[Original story]

If you were thinking about download the new Rockstar Games’ launcher, then you might want to hold off for the moment as it appears the new launcher makes the game an always-online title, including the singleplayer.

According to a Reddit post shared over on r/pcgaming, it appears that many users have run into an issue with the new launcher apparently including two levels of online checking now. According to u/Average_Tnetennba, when launching the game, the Rockstar Launcher refused to run when it was blocked in their firewall. Furthermore, this user also noticed that the game refused to boot up past an “activation check” whenever it is launched and the GTA5.exe is blocked in the firewall. This means that you can’t even launch the game to play singleplayer while the servers are down or your computer isn’t connected to the internet.

While this issue is definitely one that is making people question Rockstar’s intentions with the new launcher, it appears that it might not have been an intentional thing. According to a support post shared on the internet, the always-online checks were not meant to be a thing, and Rockstar is looking into the matter as quickly as they can. Of course, some people still aren’t 100% trusting of the developers, and many have taken to Reddit and other social sites to share their disappointment in the issue.

While there is no exact resolution time on when this bug will be taken care of, but we will keep an eye out for more details over the coming days. For now, head back over to our Grand Theft Auto 5 hub for all the latest GTA news.

Josh Hawkins

Guides Editor

Joshua holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and has been exploring the world of video games for as long as he can remember. He enjoys everything from large-scale RPGs to small, bite-size indie gems and everything in between.