GTA Online’s new anti-cheat has rid LS of invincible, teleporting gods, but Steam Deck players aren’t happy about being caught in the crossfire

Just in time for it to count as a sort of birthday present for GTA 5’s 11th anniversary, GTA Online has finally had anti-cheat software added to its PC version, known for its mass deity teleportation.

How’s it going so far? Well, very quiet, unless you’re one of the players who found themselves stuck due to the platform you’re using, unable to get back to Los Santos to distract yourself from all this talk about whether or not GTA 6 might be delayed (for now, the answer to that question seems to be a tentative no).

As revealed in the patch notes for this latest Online update, the specific anti-cheat software Rockstar has added is BattlEye, a name that will likely be familiar to players who have played Destiny 2, Fortnite, or PUBG. If you’re only playing the story mode and don’t feel like running it, Rockstar has also added the option to disable the software, which can hardware-ban offenders (meaning that if you’re caught, your computer may very well be unable to run GTA Online), for single-player.

The short term results, aside from some apparent FPS teething problems that don’t seem to be universal, have been what I can only describe as a grinder or car meetup fanatic’s wet dream. “So I played for a full hour (plus) in a public lobby without taking forever to load (or to) enter and exit properties,” wrote one player, “No one teleported me to Cayo/LSIA/their apartment. No lag. Nothing. Just 27 guys creating chaos in a public lobby. I even sold a commercial product on a public (server) after forever. It felt good. I’m very happy.”

For now at least, you can enjoy a little bit of heaven on Earth, provided you avoid the usual pesky buggers and that chgeaters don’t find a way to bypass the software in record time, as some players fear. However, those using the Steam Deck or Linux can’t access this paradise, as the addition of BattlEye has prevented them from launching GTA Online, since Rockstar doesn’t appear to have listed the game as BattlEye-enabled titles that are playable on Deck via Steam’s Proton compatibility tool at the time of writing.

Frustrated players are filing complaints with Rockstar’s customer support in hopes of convincing the developer to do something about it at some point, so we’ll have to see if it eventually releases an update that gets GTA Online working on Deck again.

What do you think about GTA Online finally getting an anti-cheat? Let us know below!