GTA Online servers offline: GTA 5 Gun Running DLC status and triple-money payouts explained

Rockstar Games has recently been limiting or turning off its servers as part of the scheduled maintenance protocol, ahead of the highly-anticipated GTA 5 Gun Running DLC release that's expected to hit GTA Online on 16 May. In his latest video, renowned YouTuber MrBossFTW (aka Ross) has shed more light on Rockstar's offline servers and the probable release of the DLC with triple-money payouts.

A Twitter user named 'FoxySnaps' has recently sent a few status alerts for GTA Online to confirm that Rockstar's game servers have either been down or limited in the last few days or since 13 May. The status alerts have continued to show up on 14 May (Sunday) via Twitter, as GTA Online game servers have been mostly offline in the run up to the latest Tunables update which is due for 16 May.

It is now confirmed that the GTA Online servers have been going down around the same time (12pm to 1pm EST) every day, since 13 May. Furthermore, it has been reported that several GTA Online gamers were unable to login to the game during the said downtime for GTA Online servers.

Nevertheless, the GTA Online servers seem to be up and running today (16 May) as evident in the screenshot (below):

Although several third-party sites are detecting that the GTA Online servers are up and running, several forum members on downdetector.com have been complaining of the inability to save progress or buy anything in the online session.

A few others in GTA Online have been complaining of "weird flashes and explosions" created by hackers that are hampering their chances of logging back into the online session as the game appears to be freezing on their side. Check out a few of those comments (below):

"A work around is to use the 'Join Friends' function and you can get online but you will probably lose access to all your vehicles and won't be able to buy anything in-session." – Patrick Arrington

"ok i was just able to get online but what hackers are doing cause they did it to me is there slowing you down by doing these wierd flashes an explosions so you wont beable to log back on because your system will run slow." – Thomas Marceau

"they have a new game red dead so this game maybe down for a while." – Thomas Marceau

"Been down for nearly 12 hours for me. Rockstar support has been zero help they look for some minor issue with your pc if there is none. They give you a sugestion in my case deleteing the social club folder, then leave you hanging for hours when you tell them it didn't work. Guess I should consider myself lucky many people are saying they got in but all there cars are gone." – Neotag

"Yeah it is not letting me join online, showing the alert failure to sync data etc..." – Adrian Macgregor

Those who are anxious to know the server status for PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and Rockstar Social Club may check the same via downdetector.com, mmoserverstatus.com and the official server status page on Rockstar Support site.

There have been at least two GTA Online Reddit threads that are complaining of various connectivity issues with the game's servers in the last few days. If you are among the affected users and experiencing data syncing issues with the server then you are not alone.

Check out various user comments on the Reddit forum thread here and here to see the complete picture of the current situation with GTA Online servers.

Apart from the data syncing issues, the gamers in GTA Online seem to be affected with loss of contact listing on their in-game phones and various other gameplay issues like sluggish response in some online sessions as well as lagging frame rates.

Although Rockstar Games is likely to release the Tunables update on 16 May, there is still no word on the probable release window for the Gunrunning DLC in GTA 5.

However, the game maker has recently tweeted that the Double Money and RP bonus week for Heist missions has ended, which means we will be seeing a new event update this week.

Meanwhile, prolific GTA tipster Funmw2 has hinted at the probability of Rockstar unleashing a Triple Money and RP bonus Event Week, ahead of the Gun Running DLC for GTA 5.

In related news, Ross explains that the QA beta branches have not been updated since the release of Cunning Stunts Special Vehicles Circuit and hence it rules out the possibility of seeing the Gun Running update anytime soon in GTA Online.