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Rockstar targets GTA Online cheaters after latest update
Announcing that it has completed today's scheduled maintenance, Rockstar revealed that it is removing counterfeit in-game currency distributed within Grand Theft Auto Online over the last several weeks. The studio is now taking corrective measures to punish players who actively engaged in cheating and other balance-breaking exploits. Rockstar assures that players who did not actively exploit the game's progression system will not be targeted during its search for cheaters. Counterfeit GTA$ received from others will be removed from player accounts, and all previously purchased items will remain available for use. Players who purposefully cheated the system, however, are subject to punitive actions ranging from assignment to cheater-specific player pools to full bans from Grand Theft Auto Online.
Grand Theft Auto Online down for maintenance tonight
The Grand Theft Auto Online multiplayer component of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5 will be taken offline for maintenance tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and will not be available until tomorrow. A patch issued earlier this week for GTA Online targeted cash cheats and player progression exploits, framing the forthcoming maintenance as a likely byproduct. Rockstar reports that the maintenance period shouldn't last more than 24 hours, and the mode is expected to resume normal operation on Thursday, January 16.
GameStop holiday sales hit new high of $3.15 billion
GameStop reported $3.15 billion in global sales for the nine-week holiday period ending January 4, 2014. Forgetting about last year's decline, the company compared the latest result to the record-breaking 2012 holiday season of $3.02 billion, which would be an increase of 9.3 percent. "Building off this momentum, we are in an excellent position to drive the global adoption of the next generation of new video game products in 2014," said CEO Paul Raines. "During this transitional console period, strong sales of next generation software were offset by a greater than expected decline in Xbox 360 and PS3 software sales resulting in a 22.5 percent decline in the new software category." "Based on these results, GameStop now expects its fourth quarter and full year 2013 same store sales to be at the high end of the current guidance range," added Chief Financial Officer Rob Lloyd. GameStop had $1 billion in new hardware sales this holiday compared to $524 million in 2012, but as noted by Raines, new software went from $1.39 billion in 2012 to $1.09 this past year. Used games sales remained relatively constant at 18 percent of the holiday business, elevating slightly from $530 to $567.3 million from 2012 to 2014, respectively.
GTA Online update targets cash, progression exploits
A new update for GTA Online, version 1.09, has eradicated a number of cash and player progression glitches, on top of strengthening overall anti-cheat measures in the online multiplayer side of GTA 5. Rockstar hasn't said which exact exploits have been taken care of in the patch notes, nor has the studio offered any context. We've followed up with Rockstar for more information and will update this post accordingly. Rockstar issued three updates to GTA Online throughout December. The first unlocked creation tools for deathmatch and race variants back on December 11. A week later, Rockstar added capture the flag and then, shortly after Christmas, Verified Jobs – special curated online match variants chosen by Rockstar itself. Co-op heists are due sometime later this year.
Rockstar: GTA5's multi-character approach was a 'leap of faith'
Grand Theft Auto 5's inclusion of multiple playable protagonists was one of its defining features, but Rockstar art director Aaron Garbut admitted in a recent interview with Edge that the mechanic was a risky move with a potential to backfire. Garbut revealed that protagonist-switching mechanics were planned from the beginning of GTA5's development as the team pieced together character dynamics and the game's overall tone. While he feels that the feature worked to the game's benefit in the end, Garbut notes that the team took a big risk in making such a critical change to the core GTA series formula. "[Having] multiple characters was a leap of faith," Garbut explained. "It was an interesting idea, and it felt like we could do interesting things with it, but it also felt like a change to the core of the game that might backfire. I think it really worked out. It's so hard during development to get perspective -- you get so used to looking for the problems that it becomes almost impossible to step back and see the positives." Grand Theft Auto 5 featured a story in which protagonists Michael, Franklin, and Trevor take part in key narrative moments both individually and as a group, allowing players to switch between the trio throughout. Previous series entries traditionally featured a single playable protagonist.
GameStop rings in the new year with savings on GTA 5, more
Did you make it through the holidays with some spare cash? Well, GameStop wants it, and kicked off a new sale to celebrate the new year to get it. The retailer's deals, which stretch from January 3 to January 5, include $50 savings on both the Wii U Skylanders console bundle ($249.99) and the 250 GB Xbox 360 Holiday console bundle, which includes both Halo 4 and Tomb Raider for $249.99. The games on sale for the next few days, some of which carry over from GameStop's last sale, are as follows: Grand Theft Auto 5 and NBA 2K14 for $39.99 each, Gears of War: Judgment ($19.99), the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Lego Marvel Super Heroes for $49.99 and Wii U, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions for $39.99 as well as the 3DS version of Angry Birds: Star Wars for $19.99 and the DS, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions for $29.99.
Grand Theft Auto 5 tops 2013 entertainment charts in UK
Grand Theft Auto 5 is the top-selling entertainment product in the UK for 2013, driving off with a score of 3.67 million unit sales from retail. Video games held 25 percent of the top 20, with FIFA 14 running third behind the Bond film Skyfall, and Call of Duty: Ghosts in fifth behind The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. FIFA 14 and CoD: Ghosts had 2.65 million and 1.99 million sales, respectively. The other two games that made the UK sales list were Battlefield 4 at spot 15 with 838,869 sales and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag sailing away with 776,888 sales in the final spot of the Top 20. The list was compiled by UK trade association ERA. MCV points out CoD: Ghosts sales are significantly down from Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's 2.7 million UK sales in 2012. FIFA 14's sales in 2013 were actually up by 40,000. It should be reiterated that these are retail sales in the UK, meaning digital distribution sales that would include a behemoth like Minecraft aren't in the mix.
GTA Online gets first Rockstar Verified jobs
Rockstar has released the first run of "Rockstar Verified" jobs for Grand Theft Auto Online, the multiplayer component of Grand Theft Auto 5. Chosen directly by Rockstar, these jobs represent some of the best content crafted by players using GTA Online's creation tools. All told, 10 jobs have been verified, including six races and four deathmatches. Their content ranges from rooftop races to full-on military vehicle shootouts. The jobs were culled from both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of GTA 5 but, as Rockstar notes, these jobs are available on both platforms now that they've been verified. Players can expect "many, many more" Rockstar Verified jobs in the future.
GTA Online receives capture-the-flag themed update today
GTA Online, the online side of Grand Theft Auto 5, gets a free update today that adds four new capture-the-flag modes. It being GTA, the flags are so much pieces of fabric as they are suspect packages and stolen vehicles. Simply titled Capture, the update brings Raid, Hold, GTA, and Contend to the game's team-based modes, along with 20 new jobs. A quick rundown of the modes, then: Raid sounds like standard CTF, with teams attacking bases to seize packages and bring them to their bases. Hold, meanwhile, is about finding packages and storing as many as you can in your base - unlike Raid, packages are also dotted across the map. GTA is like Raid, but with vehicles spread across the map. Finally, Contend is centered around a single vehicle that respawns after it's successfully captured. According to Rockstar, the update is available now through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. It also adds a bunch of tweaks and fixes that you can check out here.
GTA5, CoD: Ghosts rank as Raptr's most-played games of 2013
Stat-tracking gaming community Raptr has released its list of the most-played games of 2013, revealing that site members sunk more hours into the Xbox 360 version of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5 in its first month of release than any other individual game released this year. While GTA5 ranked as the site's most-played game in its first 30 days of release, Activision's Call of Duty: Ghosts emerged as the single most-played Xbox 360 game for all of 2013, beating out popular favorites like Minecraft, FIFA 13, and Halo 4. Raptr's results name League of Legends as its most-played PC game of 2013, outperforming rival MOBA Dota 2 and MMORPGs Rift and World of Warcraft. Grinding Gear Games' Path of Exile takes top honors as the site's most-played new IP, while Terraria's 1.2 content update ranks as the year's most-played DLC/expansion. It's worth noting that Raptr only tracks member playtime across the Xbox 360 and PC platforms; Wii U and PlayStation 3 gameplay is not calculated as part of the site's rankings. Still, the results give an interesting look at how much time players invest in a game after its release on an individual platform, as compared to its long-term popularity throughout the year.
PSA: Free deathmatch, race creation tools join GTA Online
Grand Theft Auto 5's open-world online component just grew a bit more creative with today's release of the Deathmatch & Race Creators Beta update. As we reported earlier, this patch adds a free toolset to Grand Theft Auto Online that allows players to build their own drag strips, killing fields and myriad other combinations of vehicles and explosives. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Race, Rally Race and the weaponized GTA Race game types are available for players to modify. Developer Rockstar has included a tutorial that should load automatically the first time you attempt to build something within the toolset, and it "highly recommends" that players sit through the whole thing. From there however, you're free to build to your heart's content. Alongside the new toolset, today's free update also includes a "a host of new fixes and updates for Grand Theft Auto 5's Story Mode and GTA Online," including higher cash payouts in missions with increased difficulty, and an option to lock deathmatch games to specific weaponry.
Take a convoluted trip to North Yankton via this GTA Online glitch
A GTA Online glitch reveals the snowy streets of North Yankton can be found in the online component of Grand Theft Auto 5, suggesting the area may feature (officially) in some future update. North Yankton, if you recall, is the state in which the very first mission takes place, set some nine years before the main events of the game. If you fancy revisiting the area in GTA Online, this CVG video shows you how to get there. To summarize, you'll have to replay that prologue mission, then get to a certain point and stand in a certain place, then get a friend to invite you into a GTA Online closed session. After that you'll have to call a helicopter, and head to some mountains floating surreally in the bottom right of the map. Simple, no? Well no, no it's not, but it is a bit clever. Anyway, get your snow boots on while you still can, because it seems likely Rockstar will shut off the route in a future patch.
GTA Online's DIY mission tools arrive this week, story DLC and co-op heists due in 2014
Just when we thought we were out, Rockstar Games pulls us back in. GTA Online's latest free content pack brings user-created races and deathmatches into the fray, and the developer says it could be out as soon as tomorrow. Rockstar promises that players can craft two flavors of deathmatch (free-for-all and team-based) and three types of races including standard, GTA Race and a rally variant. Perhaps most tantalizingly, the company's blog post teases "screaming jet dogfights" when mentioning race types. We can only hope that means F-16s and not Franklin's canine companion, Chop. The firm says it will keep an eye on the community creations and promote the cream of the crop via a Rockstar Verified Jobs designation, as well. Rockstar also detailed some of its plans for the future of GTAO and Grand Theft Auto 5. GTAO is getting its own version of capture the flag later this month, and co-op heists are en route for next year; the Houser brothers promise that more info on the former will hit next week. As for GTA5, the outift says it has big plans for "substantial additions" to the single-player story. Now, why did we buy next-gen consoles again?
Race, deathmatch tools in GTA Online this week; heists and story content in 2014
A new update is coming to GTA Online – the online side of GTA 5 – this week, unlocking race and deathmatch creation tools for all players. Using these tools, players can set up custom race and shootout jobs to play with friends and publish the custom game types to the Rockstar Games Social Club. The creation tools will be included in a mandatory title update, which could be available as early as tomorrow, on PS3 and Xbox 360. This month will also see the addition of Capture mode, a variant of the classic Capture the Flag mode. Up to four teams fight to steal goods from other enemy squads' bases and get back to their own with the goods. Rockstar promises more info on Capture mode next week. Finally, Rockstar has outlined a few updates coming to GTA Online next year. Co-op heists is the biggest update due in the new year, though Rockstar also says the GTA 5 story mode will get some new stuff in 2014 "continuing Michael, Franklin and Trevor's action, mayhem and unexpected adventures in Southern San Andreas."
Rockstar Warehouse offers up plush version of GTA5's Chop for adoption
Did you find yourself falling in love with Franklin's misbehaving Rottweiler in between heists in Grand Theft Auto 5? The Rockstar Warehouse is now offering a cuddly Chop plush toy for $30, complete with a bullet-shaped dog whistle. Chop comes equipped with a removable leather collar, along with "a secret stash pocket - conveniently located in his undercarriage." The Rockstar Store added a selection of other merchandise as part of its GTA5 Collection this week, including a logo-emblazoned hoodie, a black cotton beach towel, and a leash and collar for real-world Rottweilers.
Leaked video shows GTA Online's unreleased content creator
GTA Online, the multiplayer side of Grand Theft Auto 5, will eventually add a content creator first promised in the announcement trailer, but one plucky individual managed to uncover it early, or at least an old version of it, in the current game code. The above video, from the same individual who discovered potential upcoming DLC packs in the Beach Bum update game code, shows how the content cam works. Spawning weaponry appears to be a snap and even though we don't get to see this YouTuber start up any matches, you can clearly see options for beginning a Race or Deathmatch. Rockstar Games has yet to announce when the full content creator will be unlocked in GTA Online.
Grand Theft Auto Online hidden audio files divulge possible DLC
Buried in the Beach Bum DLC for Grand Theft Auto Online is a smattering of audio files that hint at possible future DLC packs, including mentions of spying, a camera phone upgrade, racing for pink slips and casinos. The audio files were picked up by YouTuber Franken Stein and shared with NeoGAF by Allenous. There's no word if these audio files are part of something larger, but listening to the disparate, nonsensical voices reminds us of all the family meals we're having this holiday weekend.
GTA Online rifles and accessories are half-off this weekend
Rockstar is bringing holiday cheer to Grand Theft Auto 5 with a couple of discounted pieces of in-game content for GTA Online. Players can celebrate Thanksgiving with half-off deals for all rifles and rifle ammo and attachments, specifically the game's assault, carbine, heavy, advanced and sniper rifle weapons. The sales start tomorrow and last through December 1. Additionally, Rockstar discounted all black-colored clothing, accessories and vehicle modification items to celebrate Black Friday by 50 percent (though the sale for these items are also good through December 1). The vehicle modification items include window tinting, black license plates and black tire smoke for your car of choice.
GameStop sales up 18.8 percent, owing primarily to GTA, Nintendo handhelds
The third quarter of the financial year was a profitable one for GameStop, with sales jumping 18.8% to $2.11 billion and net earnings increasing by 45.3% over the prior year. Key to this growth was the release of Grand Theft Auto 5, a game we awarded 4.5/5 stars. According to GameStop's latest financial report, new software sales increased by 43.1% during the quarter. Hardware sales are likewise up, with the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS handhelds cited as the impetus for a 15.3% gain over last year. The one dark spot in GameSpot's financial report is a quick note that pre-owned game sales fell by 2%. This however is handily offset by the gains of GameStop's mobile and digital sales, which are up 14.4% and 8.6%, respectively. Riding these gains into the next-generation of gaming consoles, GameStop is confident in its position. "Our strong third quarter sales results give us great momentum as we enter the new console cycle," stated CEO Paul Raines. "Consumer appetite for the new consoles is very strong judging by last week's successful PS4 launch and the excitement for tonight's Xbox One launch event. Globally, we are executing our unique playbook to maximize our position of strength."
Grand Theft Auto 5's iFruit app arrives on Windows Phone
Grand Theft Auto 5's iFruit companion app is now available for Windows Phone devices, completing Rockstar's citrusey journey across the smartphone trifecta. The iFruit app allows players to customize in-game vehicles, and features a series of Tamagotchi-like minigames starring Franklin's Rottweiler partner-in-crime, Chop. The app originally hit iOS devices in September, followed by an Android release last month. iFruit is available as a free download.
