Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced launched in early 2025 with some technical upgrades and new features for GTA Online, yet crossplay between platforms stays unavailable. For a game this popular and long-lived, that’s a bit of a bummer, especially since many players hoped the update would finally bridge the divide between PC and console players.
Rockstar Games upgraded the decade-old PC version of GTA 5 to match improvements that current-gen console players have enjoyed for a while. The update includes ray-tracing, new wildlife, and gameplay tweaks in story mode, but the focus was also on keeping GTA Online fresh with features such as kernel-level anti-cheat and Career Progress tracking. Still, crossplay wasn’t part of the package.
It’s kind of surprising in 2025, right? You’d think a game as massive as GTA Online would support playing with friends regardless of platform. Unfortunately, PC players can’t join sessions with PlayStation or Xbox users, and PlayStation and Xbox players can’t play together either. Even PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 players are separated now, since GTA 5 Enhanced and the older GTA 5 Legacy are treated as distinct versions.
Rockstar hasn’t explained why crossplay wasn’t added. Maybe the age of the game’s technology makes it tricky. Or perhaps concerns about PC cheaters disrupting console games played a role. Whatever the reason, it leaves players stuck on their own platform’s version.
GTA 5 Enhanced is the only version sold for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. At the same time, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC still have access to GTA 5 Legacy, which is also playable on new consoles via backward compatibility. Players on Legacy can’t join Enhanced sessions, and vice versa. Rockstar confirmed that both versions will remain available, but players must pick one version to play with and not the other.
Does that mean you’re out of luck if you want to play with friends on different platforms or versions? Pretty much. There’s no official way to crossplay GTA Online across these divides.
Some fans found a loophole involving a jailbroken PS4, a developer copy of GTA 5, and a private server called Los Santos Online, which charges fees for access. This method lets players crossplay between PC and PS4, but it’s complicated, unofficial, and probably not what most people want.
Rockstar hasn’t said whether GTA 6 will support crossplay. Given that Red Dead Online, a newer game, doesn’t have crossplay either, chances don’t look great. Maybe assuming GTA 6 won’t have crossplay will help avoid disappointment, but hey, surprises happen.
Crossplay in GTA Online still feels like a distant dream. Why it hasn’t happened yet is a mystery wrapped in a decade of game tech and business decisions. Will it ever come? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
