'GTA 5 Online' Money Problems: 'Grand Theft Auto 5' Hackers Create $973 Million In-Game Cash, Rockstar Delays $500,000 Payout

While “Grand Theft Auto 5” has been widely praised by video game critics and shattered sales records, “GTA Online,” the multiplayer component of “GTA 5,” has been mired in technical difficulties. The game ran into severe server issues upon launch, and bugs and glitches have resulted in lost data, login problems and even disappearing characters.

Now Rockstar is struggling to get control over the in-game economy of “GTA Online.” A new hack allows users to transfer $973 million of in-game cash to players, an amount that would have cost $20,000 of real money before Rockstar turned off the feature that allowed players to purchase in-game cash.

Hackers used a modified PlayStation 3 console to manipulate the game files into transferring $973 million in-game cash to a legit console. This money was then sent to other players. To avoid penalty, these players reported it to Rockstar. The company responded that it will only look into the issue if a player receives a ban.

It appears that at the moment, Rockstar really doesn’t have a way to address the situation and fix the broken online economy of “GTA Online.”

To add to players’ frustrations, the company announced Friday that would delay the $500,000 compensation the company promised to make up for the numerous technical problems with GTA's gameplay. Rockstar still hasn’t named a specific date.

“We hope to have an update for you on that very soon,” Rockstar said on the Rockstar Newswire. “As other have mentioned here, we of course want to make sure player progress loss issues are addressed before providing everyone with their GTA$500K. Thanks for your patience and please stay tuned.”

More than 15 million people have purchased “GTA 5” since it was released in September. While “GTA Online” has worked for some, many people are left wondering if Rockstar will ever get the game working.