It was almost three years ago that Rockstar delivered the next-gen Expanded and Enhanced version of Grand Theft Auto V to Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles. It included graphics enhancements, faster load times, and even a skippable story prologue for GTA Online. After all this time, Rockstar seems to have finally realized the PC port is still alive and thriving, and these updates never arrived on the platform.
At the tail end of a new GTA Online Community Update blog post by Rockstar, the company finally mentioned that the "much-requested" features are coming from the PC version.
"There is much more still to come, including ongoing weekly special events and bonuses, festive celebrations, gifts, surprises, as well as plans to bring the much-requested PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S features of GTA Online to the PC platform in the new year," said Rockstar
While the exact improvements PC players are receiving have not been detailed, at least the console versions" upgrades should be ported with the update. This included ray-traced reflections, denser NPC crowds and road traffic, better textures, better effects, 3D audio, HDR, wild animals, and other upgrades. The improved loading and character switching times were thanks to the modern consoles" use of SSDs, so on PC, this should still depend on what kind of storage the player is using.
A firm release date for the Expanded and Enhanced PC upgrade has not been announced yet either, though it should be soon, as Rockstar says it"s coming "in the new year."
The company also recently added an anti-cheat solution to GTA Online. Coming almost a decade after the game"s launch, the inclusion of the kernel mode service BattlEye Anti-Cheat targeted the PC version"s massive cheating problem. This did lock out Linux and Steam Deck players from the official multiplayer servers, though.