Rockstar pays fan £7,000 for fixing GTA Online loading times

What was previously only a fan mod is now set to become an official part of GTA Online, as Rockstar decreases load times by 70%.

One of the major benefits of PC gaming, that often ends up forgotten by many console gamers, is the ability to use fan made mods, many of which add important new features or fix long running problems or bugs.

GTA Online has always suffered from long load times but in February a modder named t0st probed into what was taking it so long and found that most of the five-minute loading wait was taken up with pointless item checks.

By removing these checks he was able to reduce loading times by up to 70%, which not only went down a storm with players but also Rockstar Games themselves.

Rockstar can be a little unpredictable in terms of which mods they allow but not only did they endorse this one but they’re now planning to make it an official part of the game.

‘After a thorough investigation, we can confirm that player t0st did, in fact, reveal an aspect of the game code related to load times for the PC version of GTA Online that could be improved,’ said Rockstar in a statement to PC Gamer.

‘As a result of these investigations, we have made some changes that will be implemented in a forthcoming title update.’

Although the original fix was only for the PC the way that it works seems like something that would apply to the console versions as well – although that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Not only has Rockstar praised t0st’s efforts but according to his own blog he’s been rewarded with $10,000 (£7,200) from Rockstar’s existing bug bounty programme.

The end result of which is a rare video game story where everyone benefits and good deeds are rewarded.

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