Dozens of Grand Theft Auto: Online players banned as Rockstar cracks down on cheaters

Rockstar is tired of cheaters ruining Grand Theft Auto: Online, and it is banning a number of players for using mods and other exploits.

Players on Grand Theft Auto forums like Reddit and the official Rockstar website have started complaining that they are no longer able to play the online multiplayer portion of the game. This is apparently due to a wave of bans that the studio is placing on people it believes used hacks, glitches, or mods to get an advantage over the rest of the GTA: Online population. The bans for most people will last about 10 days, which means that you can get back to playing on August 22.

These bans are an important moderation tool for Rockstar and the economy of GTA: Online. Unlike the single-player GTA V campaign, players can spend real-world currency to get money in the multiplayer mode. This gives GTA bucks a sort of real value, and someone filling up their bank account with millions of dollars can deflate the worth of certain items that should take a lot longer to purchase.

So Rockstar is banning players that have way too much cash in order to keep legitimate players feeling good about spending money. Publisher Take-Two Interactive said that it is generating a surprising amount of revenue from GTA: Online, and that continued through its most recent earnings report last week. So of course it wants to do whatever it takes to protect the integrity of that world.

But, of course, Rockstar isn’t perfect, and it’s possible that the developer banned some people who didn’t cheat. If that’s the case, head to the Rockstar forums and open up a support ticket. The studio should unban you if you really didn’t use an exploit.

At the same time, be careful. Maybe you didn’t cheat, but someone who did gave you millions of dollars. I doubt Rockstar will see a difference between that and using a mod yourself.