Game development is a tricky business, and a small error in the code can have profound effects on the final product. Unfortunately, it’s also not unheard of for updates meant to improve a game to break it even worse. And that situation is precisely what’s happening in Grand Theft Auto Online.
Grand Theft Auto Online players are experiencing an unusual glitch that teleports entire lobbies to another location. The problem appears to be due to a bug in Rockstar’s most recent update for its popular multiplayer crime sandbox game.
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A YouTube user named TheFroggmann uploaded a clip of the strange glitch. The video shows him entering a warehouse and using the menu to begin a Sell Weapons mission. The game is supposed to teleport players outside to begin the mission. However, instead of starting as expected, the game teleported the entire lobby to the airport. This being GTA Online, a chaotic melee soon followed.
Twitter user Tez2 later shared the clip on Twitter, where other players reported experiencing a similar bug. According to Tez2, it appears that something went wrong with a background update that went live yesterday. According to them, the developers must have accidentally swapped a mission-related event with one that teleports the player to one of GTA Online’s player homes or garages. It’s not clear how the game decides which location to drop players when the bug occurs. However, based on the Twitter replies, the glitch only affects the mission for selling items from the player’s bunker. However, other tasks may still be affected.
This is far from the first time GTA Online players experienced a bizarre bug. Tez2 previously discovered a glitch that booted players from the game when visiting a Nightclub. As with the more recent incident, a mistake in a routine background update caused the glitch. The patch was supposed to remove an exploit that allowed players to duplicate items in the Nightclub garage but also targeted legitimate players. Developers also intended the patch to fix known issues with the Test Track and Auto Shop, but Rockstar rolled it back due to the Nightclub bug. It’s unclear if Rockstar will do the same to the most recent update.
Glitches like this remind players that Grand Theft Auto Online is a massive game with several years’ worth of updates. With so many moving pieces, it’s understandable that a few glitches will slip through the cracks. Although, that doesn’t make it any less frustrating to the players caught up in these unusual bugs.
Grand Theft Auto Online is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions launching November 11.