GTA 5 and its standalone multiplayer component GTA Online have launched for PS5 and Xbox Series X. While many PS4 and Xbox One players will be looking to transfer their story mode and Online progression to next-gen consoles, PC players won’t have so much luck.
In the run-up to GTA 5’s next-gen launch, Rockstar confirmed that players would be able to transfer their current GTA Online characters to the new systems through a one-time migration. That transfer was temporarily disrupted during launch, as a short-lived bug prevented players from migrating their PS4 and Xbox One profiles to next-gen consoles if they had previously migrated those accounts to PC.
Rockstar support identified the issue on Twitter in the hours after the game’s launch, before confirming the bug had been resolved.
“The issue blocking GTA Online profile migration of PS4 and Xbox One accounts that were previously migrated to PC has been addressed, and that migration is now working as intended,” the official Rockstar Support account tweeted.
However, in the same tweet, it confirmed that “GTA Online profiles on PC cannot be migrated to PS5 or Xbox Series X/S.” That means if you’ve been enjoying GTA 5 with a mouse and keyboard for the past few years, you won’t be able to transfer your Online progress to next-gen consoles.
A blog post on the Rockster support website also confirms the game's story mode progression can't be transferred from PC to PS5 or Xbox Series X. While you can try to use GTA 5 cheats to get back to where you were, it's not quite the same.
If you’re thinking of picking up the latest version of the game, you’ll have to start its multiplayer from scratch or continue playing the PC version.
The issue blocking GTA Online profile migration of PS4 and Xbox One accounts that were previously migrated to PC has been addressed, and that migration is now working as intended. Please note that GTA Online profiles on PC cannot be migrated to PS5 or Xbox Series X|S.March 15, 2022
Analysis: console players don’t have all the fun
The inability to transfer GTA Online profiles from PC to PS5 and Xbox Series X will be sour news for those hoping to explore Los Santos on next-gen hardware. But it’s not a total loss for PC players. Many of the game’s visual improvements introduced in this latest console version are already available for PC, including 4k resolutions, 60fps, and improved draw distances. There are even many community mods that add ray-tracing to the game.
Perhaps the biggest improvement of this latest console version over its PC counterpart is that it takes advantage of the PS5 DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. If you want to experience those features while careering around the game’s crime-ridden streets, you’ll need to pick up the PS5 version of the game.
Unfortunately, it looks like there’s no way around the restrictive PC transfer option. While in the early days of GTA Online it was possible to migrate your player account between consoles, the option was removed several years ago. So don't get any ideas about transferring your PC account to PS4, before moving it onto PS5. You’re stuck with your PC profile, and we don’t expect that to change in the future.
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