GTA Online Hacker Issue Updates: Cheaters Can Add Money Directly, Shark Card Cash Not Separate After All

Rockstar's anti-cheat system relies heavily on a number of hidden stats which it tracks constantly. While no-one has gained insight into exactly how these stats work, there is a pretty high chance it can somehow note if someone got money dropped on them without being hackers themselves. Now, when hackers give themselves money directly, they paint a big-ass target on their backs for the anti-cheat to strike with the hammer.

If the distinction between victim and perpetrator was money dropping on you versus it being directly added to your account, this new hacker ability can be a legitimate reason to fear false bans. If this ends up ticking off the algorithms, victims might see their entire GTA Online progress wiped due to a temporary ban, or their access to the game revoked permanently.

Considering that any and all bans in GTA Online are non-negotiable and cannot be repealed, the prospect of false bans possibly becoming less remote and rare than they are (the vast majority of false ban claims are entirely untrue) is terrifying.

Adding on top is this are unverified claims that hackers can now delete cars from player garages. On the one hand, these claims are few and far between meaning it could be plain old fear mongering. However after the events of the past few days, we would honestly not be surprised by this.

The way this situation is exploding, Rockstar will have to make some concessions down the line to repair the fallout. At one time, long ago, they handed out a universal half-million $GTA care package after some server issues. Considering the direction they took the game's economy (prices have only gone one way: up), they will have to give away a lot more to win some goodwill after this.

The reality of the situation is that players are leaving the game because of this hacker issue. With the risk of real world monetary damage, it's understandable that they would seek other venues of entertainment. Right now, Rockstar's main objective is to solve the problem before the Gunrunning update, lauded to be the largest this year, is released.

In the grand scheme of things, this won't put a major dent into GTA 5's player base. As we've discussed several times before, the main audience of this game are casuals, who won't go so deep into research as to read up on hacker issues, and they would most likely play on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 anyway, neither of which are affected by hacks at all.

However, within the gaming circle, this particular debacle will be remembered, unfortunately. One major policy Rockstar should backpedal on is the non-negotiable bans. While currently, very few false ban claims are actually legitimate, this policy has drawn widespread criticism from the fans and reverting it would be the quickest way towards regaining faith and goodwill.

In spite of the vocal backlash that the false separation of Shark Card money drew, actually doing this would be a great move. Nevermind the outcry of the vocal minority that opposes microtransactions, protecting the in-game value of actual cash purchases is a great way to spell out safety for players and an intent to protect their interests.

This would also be a great opportunity to go back and optimize the game's passive mode feature since it is at the heart of the whole problem. Passive mode has long been exploited by griefers. On one hand, committing acts of violence while not in passive mode should activate cooldowns preventing griefers from killing players and immediately slamming themselves into passive to avoid retribution.

On the other hand, the tools to defend against griefers should be expanded. If one player kills another repeatedly when outside of PvP specific situations, the victim should have the option to activate some sort of a selective passive mode which applies to the griefer alone. The player may still interact with the world and other players, however as far as the specific griefer is concerned, they are in passive mode and thus invulnerable.

Unfortunately, Rockstar sealed GTA Online's fate on PC and the last-gen consoles when they opted for a peer-to-peer server architecture. Very, very few P2P multiplayer games exist with reliable anti-cheat methods, one of the few being Supreme Commander. However the system it uses — which relies heavily on latency — is not viable in a game structured like GTA Online, as it would render the game unplayable.

We just hope that this will stand as an example for future reference and that Rockstar has already invested in dedicated servers for Red Dead Redemption 2's multiplayer portion. You might think it unnecessary since it has only been announced for current-gen consoles, but it's only a matter of time before they are cracked, and there is a pretty good chance that the game will also be coming to PC down the line.

The coming days are crucial in this on-going struggle against the passive mode hack. The more days that pass without a fix, the more players that will be hit and the more news of it that will spread, leading to more players potentially leaving the game. The ship is taking on water, and Rockstar needs to plug the hole even if it only is a trickle.

We'll see how things progress in the coming days and hopefully they will bring with them some sort of fix for this debilitating hack. As always, you can count on us for out to date coverage on the story as it develops.