Today marks the official launch day of the much discussed GTAV and GTA Online Generation 9 versions – on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. It was a local midnight release for both consoles, so as you’ve likely seen, it has been slowly revealing itself across timezones since early morning yesterday. We were lucky enough to receive early access codes from the Rockstar Community Team yesterday as well (thank you!), so we’ve been checking out the new changes for ourselves.
There’s no better way to evaluate this release without playing it, but below you’ll find a quick “patch notes” style list that briefly describes what the new versions have introduced. You can also watch a PS5 comparison from our friends GTASeriesVideos if you’re interested.
There may be more hidden details or changes to discover yet, but this can be a bit tricky with no PC files to analyse, so we’ll likely highlight those on our Twitter if anything shows up in the coming days. Full launch information can be found on Rockstar’s Newswire, along with a new trailer to demonstrate the graphical improvements.
- 3 new graphics modes (Fidelity, Performance, Performance RT)
- New introduction/opening cutscene
- Revamped loading screens showing various artworks
- Hao’s Special Works (inside LS Car Meet) with new vehicle mods affecting speed/performance
- HSW premium test ride
- HSW time trials
- HSW race series
- 5 new moddable vehicles (Coil Cyclone II, Karin S95, Imponte Arbiter GT, Pfister Astron Custom, Pegassi Weaponized Ignus)
- 4 existing vehicles are moddable (Ubermacht Sentinal XS, Shitzu Hakuchou Drag, Grotti Turismo Classic, Bravado Banshee)
- New “Chameleon” vehicle paints (available at LS Customs or from HSW)
- New landing page for Online and Story with tiles to join specific modes (e.g. heists)
- Ability to create an invite-only session under “Find New Session” in the pause menu even if already in an online lobby (instead of going back to Story first)
- Ability to purchase “replicas” of other players’ Personal Vehicles within the LS Car Meet – still under investigation but check this topic on GTAForums and this video from Gtamen for an overview
- Increased base payments on Biker Sell Missions (approx 25% higher)
- Increased daily income for the Nightclub business (from $10k to $50k)
- “Further adjustments” and balancing of PvP vehicles coming soon to all plaforms
- Migrating your character to new-gen permanently wipes your character from old-gen
- No news at present whether any of the new-gen features or improvements will be added to PC
- New Credits page on the Rockstar website – soon to be updated
- Re-launched official website with new guides for GTA Online
If you’ve got any questions, thoughts, or even bugs to report, don’t hesitate to join both the GTAV and GTA Online communities on GTAForums.
(and by the way, the song featured in the new trailer is called Baker Street from Gerry Rafferty!)