GTA Online cheaters rage after Rockstar wipes characters

The streets of Los Santos might seem a little cleaner lately, thanks in large part to a recent disciplinary wave that has hit GTA Online in late August. Rockstar took aim at cheaters who abused a glitch that allowed them to amass huge riches without much effort.

The exploit, which was known by the community as the “apartment garage glitch,” allowed players to purchase properties only to then use a variety of menus to trick the game into gifting you millions of in-game dollars within minutes. The method was effective enough that videos showcasing how to pull it off were met with copyright strikes on YouTube from Take Two Interactive, the game’s publisher. Players who already used the apartment garage glitch, meanwhile, might have logged on recently only to be met with a warning that their accounts were completely reset — meaning that not only did these cheaters lose the money they gamed, they lost everything else in the process, too.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to maintain a healthy game environment for all players, anyone found to be abusing exploits and cheats to illegitimately gain GTA$ and in-game items may be subject to penalties including cash balance adjustments, character resets, suspensions and up to permanent bans as appropriate,” reads a recent Rockstar support page that explains the reset wave.

Polygon reached out to Rockstar for additional information regarding how many folks were affected by this disciplinary action, though already, the effects are noticeable on social media, where fans are talking about all the progress they’ve lost as a a result. Many are vowing to give up the game altogether, cursing Rockstar in the process.

Some players claim that they were illegitimately caught in the reset wave, while others are straight up taunting Rockstar for not catching them, or saying that their accounts still have millions left in the bank. Some are excusing the use of the glitch by describing GTA Online as a grindy game, or are shocked that Rockstar would go this far, rather than just deleting the money. Others are confused that Rockstar would enact such measures when the MMO has, in their view, much larger cheating problems hailing from malicious players who actively try and ruin other people’s games.

But while some players are angry about losing so much progress, the general consensus among the community at large seems to be that anyone who partook in the exploit should have known there might be consequences. After all, Rockstar has gone after Grand Theft Auto cheaters before, sometimes in hilariously unexpected ways.

“They knew the risks, no sympathy,” one fan said on a thread in the GTAForums discussing the reset wave. “All I can say on the matter is, that people should have known better,” another opined.