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GTA Online now uses BattlEye over 9 years after the PC version released.
GTA Online routinely gets updates and patch notes entailing “general fixes” and other small fix-ups, but this week, the Grand Theft Auto game got something very different. Rockstar Games put out an update for the PC version of GTA 5 and GTA Online to add anti-cheat to the games. GTA Online is now using BattlEye, an anti-cheat service used by many other multiplayer games, though not one that’s used quite as often as other options like Easy Anti-Cheat. Rockstar Games formally acknowledged the anti-cheat implementation in a set of patch notes that pretty much only deals with that change aside from a bugfix or two.
The update in question and the use of BattlEye specifically was first noticed in the background changes catalogued from Steam before Rockstar Games put out its patch notes on the GTA Online support site. BattlEye is a kernel-level anti-cheat software used to prevent bad actors from cheating in-game and is used in games like XDefiant, Skull and Bones, Lords of the Fallen, and more. “Kernal level” has been a bit of a buzzword and a point of concern ever since Riot Games implemented Vanguard anti-cheat in Valorant and then in League of Legends seeing how it was a new anti-cheat service that operated at the kernal level, but it’s worth pointing out that BattlEye and most worthwhile anti-cheats like Easy Anti-Cheat have been doing that for a long time now anyway.
That said, the patch notes for the latest GTA Online update were pretty brief since they essentially only deal with BattlEye being added. Whether you’re playing GTA Online through the Rockstar Games Launcher or through something else like Steam, if you ever want to turn off BattlEye when you’re just playing story mode, options have been added to do so which serves as an olive branch for those who protest systems like that being in place within single-player experiences.
The full patch notes for GTA Online‘s latest update can be found below:
General
- Integrated BattlEye Anti-Cheat for GTA Online
- An option has been added to the Rockstar Games Launcher to disable BattlEye Anti-Cheat for Story Mode play
- The launch argument -nobattleye has been added to disable BattlEye Anti-Cheat when needed on third-party launchers and Story Mode play
Fixes
- Fixed an issue that resulted in crashes while playing GTA Online
- Fixed an issue that resulted in players being unable to accept invites or join other players
While it’s definitely a better late than never scenario for GTA Online to finally get anti-cheat protection through BattlEye, the implementation of the anti-cheat should help keep players safer while Rockstar works on GTA 6. We still don’t know when the game will release with only rumors and guesses pointing towards release windows. There are some concerned about the game getting delayed, however, which would mean that Grand Theft Auto fans might be playing the GTA 5 version of GTA Online for quite awhile longer.