Later this evening, Rockstar Games will shut down all online services associated with Grand Theft Auto V in order to perform scheduled server maintenance. This should simply be a routine downtime to give the developer the opportunity to make sure that GTA Online continues to run with minimal issues.
Giving fans a few days notice before tonight’s maintenance, Rockstar Games first informed players of the scheduled server outages this past weekend in friendly message from the developer’s official Twitter account . The GTA V maintenance will begin late Monday and is expected to last for several hours.
Grand Theft Auto Online will be undergoing maintenance this Monday, August 17 at 11:00 PM ET/4:00 AM BST, for approximately 7 hours.
— Rockstar Support (@RockstarSupport) August 14, 2015
Further detailing the upcoming maintenance, the developer confirmed on the Rockstar Support blog that the server outages will bring down more than just the login servers to GTA Online . Users will be completely unable to use the Rockstar Social Club or access the Rockstar cloud servers during this time.
“We will be performing scheduled online service maintenance this Monday, August 17 starting at 11:00 PM ET and lasting for approximately 7 hours. The Social Club website and certain online features across most Rockstar games, including Grand Theft Auto Online, will be unavailable. Rockstargames.com and rockstargames.com/support will remain up but login will be down periodically. Apologies in advance for any inconvenience.”
The maintenance is scheduled to last for seven hours, but the outage could possibly take more time than anticipated, meaning gamers might have to wait even longer before being able to play Grand Theft Auto V’s online multiplayer mode. Rockstar Games has informed players to keep an eye on their support page to be notified when the servers will go back online. The website is currently displaying a notice informing fans of this evening’s maintenance period. That banner should also let gamers know when GTA Online is once again playable.
This week’s maintenance is only believed to focus on improving general server performance for Grand Theft Auto V’s online services. Rockstar Games has not hinted that the downtime is in preparation of future updates or new content. It is assumed that the downtime is merely to allow the team to clean up their online servers.
At the beginning of this month, Rockstar games ended a multi-week online event within GTA V that rewarded players with millions of in-game dollars of cash as well as increased RP payouts and daily discounts on some of the game’s most expensive equipment.
As the Inquisitr reported at the time, the event lasted for nearly a full month. This could have caused increased strain on the GTA Online’s servers that might have prompted tonight’s maintenance.
Will today’s scheduled downtime interfere with your ability to play GTA V ?
[Images via Rockstar Games ]
