GTA Online Xbox Series X & PS5 Character Transfer Creates Controversy

By Cade Onder

GTA Online players who have picked up the new Xbox Series X|S and PS5 port are running into quite the dilemma. Rockstar has released Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online across three different generations of consoles and PC in eight years, selling hundreds of millions of copies in the process. In that time, players have racked up millions of in-game dollars, bought countless vehicles and properties, and invested hundreds, if not thousands, of hours leveling up their character. A lot of progress has been made by players over the years and thankfully, Rockstar lets them transfer their old characters over to the new version of GTA Online, but it comes with a massive catch.

As first reported by Twitter user TezFunz2, when players transfer their Xbox One or PS4 GTA Online character to Xbox Series X|S or PS5, their last-gen character is completely deleted. Of course, the game does warn the player when they go to do this, but this wasn't made clear ahead of the game's new release. Players were told that they may lose unspent GTA$ that were bought via microtransactions, but that seemed to be the only significant caveat. If players try to load up GTA Online on last-gen, they'll be welcomed to the game as if its their first time and be told they need to load into the character creator before jumping into Los Santos. While this may not seem like a big deal to some people, it does create a noteworthy problem.

GTA Online has no form of cross-play or cross-gen multiplayer, meaning the player base has been chopped up once more. Players can make a new character on last-gen if they'd like to continue playing with friends on Xbox One or PS4, but it's not an ideal situation. If players want to continue playing with their last-gen friends, they can also make avoid transferring their character to Xbox Series X|S and PS5. They'll have to start over on there as well, but the new version comes with a feature called Career Builder, which gives players $4 million to spend on businesses, vehicles, and more which should soften the blow.

How do you feel about Rockstar deleting last-gen GTA Online characters after transferring them to the new remaster? Let me know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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