‘GTA Online’ Servers Will Be Down For Several Hours On Wednesday Morning For Scheduled Maintenance

Anyone who plays games online is aware that servers must occasionally be taken down for routine maintenance to keep everything running as smooth as possible. While many titles reserve a special time on a predetermined basis, such as once a week, it is actually rare for Rockstar Games to bring down the online servers for Grand Theft Auto Online.

However, that doesn’t mean that the GTA V servers don’t require maintenance from time to time. In a move that might surprise players who have otherwise grown accustomed to the game’s lack of server downtime, Rockstar Games has notified players on their official support website that all Grand Theft Auto Online services will be unavailable for several hours on Wednesday morning.

“We will be performing scheduled online service maintenance this Wednesday, April 27 starting at 1:00 AM EDT and lasting for approximately 5 hours. During this time the Grand Theft Auto Online servers will be unavailable. Rockstargames.com and rockstargames.com/support will remain up but login will be down periodically. Please stay tuned to this page, which will be updated when the maintenance is finished. Apologies in advance for any inconvenience.”

Grand Theft Auto Online will be undergoing maintenance this Wednesday, April 27 at 1:00 AM EDT/5:00 AM UTC, for approximately 5 hours.

— Rockstar Support (@RockstarSupport) April 25, 2016

For a game played by millions, it is surprising just how infrequently the developer brings down the GTA Online servers. By looking at how other online video games operate, players would assume that the online multiplayer mode for GTA V would need to undergo such maintenance periods far more often considering the extremely high amount of users that populate the game on a daily basis. Yet somehow, Rockstar Games has managed to keep the servers up so much to make this week’s brief maintenance feel like a rare occurrence.

While GTA Online users might be less familiar with dealing with server maintenance than fans of other online titles, players should bear in mind that the downtime will help keep bugs and issues from cropping up in the future as all servers eventually need to be reset.

After looking at the ongoing success and popularity that GTA Online has brought to the already renowned franchise, it is easy to understand why Rockstar Games is taking special care to ensure that the game receives proper care without the need for more regular maintenance periods. As The Inquisitr reported earlier this year, Grand Theft Auto V publisher Take-Two Interactive seems to continually announce that GTA Online has broken its own previous records for digital transactions and concurrent players. Even Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick claims to be surprised by the game’s performance this many years after its initial release.

One of the reasons behind Grand Theft Auto Online‘s popularity is the fact that Rockstar Games regularly releases new content via free updates. Just this last week, the developer added two additional maps for the recently launched Inch by Inch Adversary Mode. The Rockstar Newswire blog detailed the new maps shortly after they were added to the game last Friday.

“The relentless intensity of Inch By Inch climbs another two notches today, with brand new maps available to play right now in GTA Online. You’ll be fighting tooth and nail amongst the muck and hay bales at the Grapeseed Cow Farm in Inch By Inch III, or setting up security checkpoints for low-flying bag carriers entering your end zone’s airspace at LSIA in Inch By Inch IV.”

Over the past month, Rockstar Games has also released several new custom vehicles in Grand Theft Auto V which can be fully modified at Benny’s Original Motor Works garage. The developer has also already announced their intentions to release even more vehicles and new adversary modes for GTA Online in the near future.

[Image via Rockstar Games]