GTA Online gets BattlEye, and some fans believe it's the beginning of something bigger.

Grand Theft Auto Online, Rockstar's multi-player murder and mayhem game, has been updated to include BattlEye Anti-cheat Software.

BattlEye is designed to prevent people from doing things in online games that they are not supposed to. It's a problem that has plagued GTA Online for years. Cheaters are bad, and GTAO can be a goat-rideo. But roleplaying servers, enabled by mods, are also a major part of why GTA Online is so popular.

BattleEye is disabled by using the launch argument "nobattleeye" to allow modders their freedom. It can be turned off while playing the singleplayer campaign. While I think that letting people turn off BattlEye is potentially asking for some sort of shenanigans, it will hopefully mean in practice that stock GTA Online will have fewer cheater-caused problems in the game while RP players will be able to go about their ridiculous businesses uninterrupted.

I feel compelled by the need to highlight a few examples to show why this is so important:

• I killed some trophy hunters in GTA 5 Roleplay, but did it go too far?
• I started a cult in GTA 5, and I scammed thousands of players
• I got the city high in GTA 5.
• I foiled a presidential assassination in a GTA 5 roleplay server.
• After a gangster save my life, I became the personal tailor of the mob in GTA 5 RP
• I posed as an attorney and tried to clear the murderer of a serial killer in a GTA 5 Roleplay server
• I tried to become the GTA Online kingpin, but without firing a shot
• I tried to create a GOURANGA group in GTA 5 and it didn't work out well
• I started a riot on a GTA 5 roleplaying game server after I sang in a fake American Idol audition

Vital stuff indeed.

A FAQ warns that adding BattlEye to GTA Online may cause technical issues with certain "non-cheat overlays and visual enhancement tools." When BattlEye has been turned off, you will not be able connect to the official GTA Online servers. A troubleshooting manual will provide advice on how to proceed if you encounter problems after the addition of BattlEye.

Rockstar has made a bold move, despite the potential headaches. GTA Online, whether it's a moneymaker or a massively popular game, is a big hit. Rockstar has embraced the mod community to the point where it bought the studio that created the popular FiveM mod. It said it wanted to "help them to find new ways to support and improve their services to developers and players."

Tez2, a Rockstar Games fan, speculated on why Rockstar integrated BattlEye in GTA Online after almost 10 years of not having it. He said that this "could have been seen as preparations for [the Gen9 version of Grand Theft Auto 5] coming to PC."

This would be the hoped for but not yet implemented update that, if it happens, will make the PC versions of GTA 5 & GTAO equal to the Xbox Series X/S & PlayStation 5 editions. It will add graphical and performance improvements, new content such as the Career Progress progress and rewards system, ad access to the GTA+ service. I've contacted Rockstar to get more information and will update this post if I hear back.