Rockstar liked the GTA Online unofficial load time fix so much they paid its creator

Up to now, for being a game that is constantly updated even in 2021, Grand Theft Auto Online has had some pretty abysmal loading times - so much so that the user community decided to do something about it. One intrepid modder dug through the game and put together an unofficial fix that reduced the loading times of the game by about 70%. In turn, even more recently, Rockstar was so impressed with the work that it’s paying the fix creator and utilizing the fix in an upcoming update across all of GTA Online.

It was back at the beginning of March that news went around about a programmer creating an unofficial fix to dramatically reduce GTA Online’s loading times. By digging deep into GTA Online’s code, GitHub user tostercx discovered the main offenders of the game’s annoyingly long loading screens and was able to reduce the clutter in an unofficial fix they released to the public. Eventually, it came to Rockstar’s attention, and not only has the studio confirmed that tostercx’s work is sound, but it’s paying the modder to utilize their work in an upcoming update.

Thanks to Rockstar picking up tostercx's work, we won't have to sit through such horribly long instances of the GTA Online loading screens we've seen a million times before.

Tostercx revealed in an update on their work that Rockstar had reached out to them and would be implementing their efforts in an upcoming update to Grand Theft Auto Online. Not only that, but they would be awarded $10,000 for their efforts through the Rockstar Bug Bounty program, usually reserved for discovery of security or privacy issues in the game. Rockstar itself confirmed the transaction and upcoming move in a statement to PC Gamer.

"After a thorough investigation, we can confirm that player t0st did, in fact, reveal an aspect of the game code related to load times for the PC version of GTA Online that could be improved," the company wrote. "As a result of these investigations, we have made some changes that will be implemented in a forthcoming title update."

It’s more than a little cool to see a modder step up to the plate and then be rewarded for their efforts on a game. Kudos to Rockstar for implementing the fix and also tostercx on a fantastic payday. GTA Online will be a better (or at least less cumbersome) place for their contribution.