GTA 5: Grand Theft Auto Online officially down for maintenance

Rockstar Games has confirmed that the scheduled maintenance period for Grand Theft Auto Online, the online multiplayer mode for GTA 5, has begun. As a result, GTA Online is inaccessible.

According to Rockstar, attempting to login in will cause you to receive an incorrect error message stating that GTA Online will be available once the Prologue is completed.

"We apologize for the inconvenience and will correct this int he future – you do not need to complete the Prologue again," the developer confirmed.

Rockstar has yet to reveal what today's maintenance will do, but many believe the focus is on cracking down on cheaters, exploits, and glitches. Rockstar began the process earlier this week with the release of title update 1.09. The update reportedly improved  "anti-cheat" measures while fixing several GTA$ and RP exploits.

Maintenance was scheduled to begin at 9:00pm Eastern Time tonight and run through tomorrow, Thursday January 16th. GTA Online is expected to be up within 24 hours, so we'll be sure to keep you up to date with anything we hear.