Decade-old GTA Online beta discovered and made playable by fans

Updated

Rockstar Games

Owners of retail copies of Grand Theft Auto V can access the build via an emulator.

Fans have gotten a hold of an old pre-release beta version of Grand Theft Auto V’s GTA Online mode, showing a number of features that were either cut or changed for the final version.

The details:

Fans recently discovered a version of Xbox 360-era GTA Online dating back to before its complete October 2013 version, which includes many noticeable differences from the final game. Now, Twitter user @kimi_sha19 has shared a method for anyone who has a copy of the beta to play it using Xenia, an Xbox 360 emulator for PC that includes multiplayer support. To play the beta version, you must own a retail copy of GTA V for the Xbox 360.
The build itself is riddled with bugs and visual glitches, including the inability to earn or even pick up cash, but it does show us a similar, yet very different game. When a player is killed, the iconic "Wasted" screen breaks down which weapon killed the player and which parts of the body were hit, the UI itself is vastly different with a yellow color scheme rather than the final blue, and the logo is slightly different. Players could also create up to five different characters and request "gang backup" from Lamar, as well as Al Carter and Edgar Carlos, who are both missing from the release version.
The game appears to have been made playable by using a modded Title Update file from modder Byrom, which allowed players to access standard GTA Online, followed by removing the "update.rpf+DLC" files from the game to use single-player assets. There appears to be plenty more to discover, and fans on the GTAForums and Twitter are still documenting the differences they find.

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