‘GTA 5’ Cheats ‘Gone’ After Overnight Maintenance

GTA 5 cheats may be a thing of the past now, as Rockstar performed overnight maintenance on the online side of the game beginning the night of January 15. At least Rockstar hopes the cheating is gone.

Ever since its release, gamers have been exploiting aspects of GTA Online to make easy money. At first, it was assumed that they were repeating the high-earning missions, so Rockstar cut the winnings by half after the first successful attempt. Cheaters kept making money through various exploits though, possibly ruining the game for others who were trying to play it honest.

Last night’s maintenance removed a lot of known exploits and possibly a lot of ill-gotten gains resulting from them, so GTA 5 has become more fair to gamers just trying to have fun. For those who used the GTA 5 cheats, Rockstar laid out some strict rules and regulations on their site. In addition, anyone who willingly participated in the exploits had the counterfeit money removed as well as anything bought with it, and were possibly placed in “cheater pools.” Some of them may have been banned from GTA Online altogether.

GTA Online update – today’s scheduled maintenance has been completed and the game is now back up and running. Thx all for your patience.

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) January 16, 2014

Gamers who received the counterfeit money but were not involved in exploiting the game themselves may have had the money removed, but Rockstar let them keep whatever they thought they were buying honestly. The message is simple: Rockstar wants you to steal digital cars, not make counterfeit money. Crime doesn’t pay in the real world, and they want to ensure it doesn’t pay in GTA 5 either.

For GTA 5 cheaters who were banned from Rockstar’s servers, there is always Saints Row. As glitchy as Saints Row IV can be, it’s still a fun alternative to Grand Theft Auto 5.

Rockstar left a message for gamers looking forward to a new “cheater-free” GTA 5:

“We’re grateful for the community’s continued support in dealing with these issues and once again apologize to anyone that has had their Grand Theft Auto Online experience sullied by these exploits that broke the game’s natural flow. Please stay tuned for lots more news about GTA Online in the weeks ahead.”

As with any online game, cheating only takes the fun out of the experience for honest gamers who are trying to actually get what they want by following the game’s rules. Rockstar has simply taken steps to ensure that GTA 5 cheaters don’t ruin the fun for the rest of us.

Are you one of the gamers affected by the removal of exploits and cheats from GTA Online?