GTA 5 player locked out after 219 hours playtime
Digital technology can be truly miraculous: accessing content right in the comfort of my own home can be the icing on the cake of my personal happiness! And this alone should convince anyone interested.
But digital content also comes with its share of drawbacks. Publishers usually charge their maximum RRP despite lower overhead costs; physical media sales happen regardless. When purchasing digital media, in reality you are leasing from its owner who must not remove that product altogether; when that occurs you may as well pay a subscription fee like Sony recently did when pulling thousands of pieces off players accounts without offering refunds or an explanation as part of a subscription plan.
While I appreciate digital content’s convenience for disabled gamers like myself, physical media will always hold more appeal for me. Imagine living without physical comics to smell when life gets difficult… Would life even be worth living then?
Physical copies cost less and you own them permanently unless misplaced, lost, stolen or lost – making me sympathetic towards Grand Theft Auto gamer who’s at the centre of today’s tale.
Twitter user The Duke, an avid GTA V player who purchased their digital copy legally through Steam in 2015 and lost access in 2018, claims a loss of 219 hours of playback with this loss he blames on “DRM and online only”, to be exact. He expressed his displeasure with both DRM and online-only gaming as his top two complaints about digital copies in general.
Follow-up tweet from The Duke noted that after verifying game files and performing a clean install of Rockstar Games Social Club launcher as recommended online fixes have not worked; access to GTA V remains denied despite these attempts and various recommended fixes online were attempted but the Duke still cannot access GTA V despite his best efforts and calling Rockstar Games for assistance – hoping this issue is quickly addressed as it shouldn’t happen at this stage of development.
Grand Theft Auto V has now arrived on PC, PlayStation and Xbox. GTA VI will follow suit later in 2025 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
