GTA Online finally gets BattlEye anti-cheat, and some fans think it's a sign of bigger things to come

Nine years after it arrived on PC, Rockstar's multiplayer murder and mayhem sim Grand Theft Auto Online has integrated BattlEye anti-cheat software.

Simply put, BattlEye aims to keep people in online games from doing things they're not supposed to. That's been an ongoing problem in GTA Online for many years, and a real challenge for Rockstar: Cheaters suck and GTAO is often a goat rodeo, but roleplaying servers enabled by mods are also a big part of what makes GTA Online so popular. 

To allow modders to keep doing their thing, BattleEye can be disabled with the launch argument "-nobattleeye." It can also be turned off when playing the singleplayer campaign. While I feel like letting people switch BattlEye off is at least potentially asking for shenanigans of one form or another, it will hopefully in practice mean that stock GTA Online players will enjoy fewer cheater-caused headaches in the game, while RP players can go about their ridiculous business uninterrupted.

I feel compelled to note a few examples of said business, to really highlight why this is important:

• I murdered some trophy hunters in the woods in GTA 5 roleplay, but did I go too far?
• I started a cult and scammed players for thousands in GTA 5
• I got the city high as a rogue paramedic in GTA 5
• I foiled an assassination attempt on the president in a GTA 5 flight sim roleplay server
• I became the mob's personal tailor after a gangster saved my life in GTA 5 RP
• I posed as a lawyer and tried to clear a serial killer of murder in a GTA 5 roleplay server
• I tried to become a GTA Online kingpin without firing a single bullet
• I tried to form a GOURANGA gang in GTA 5 roleplay and it didn't end well
• I sang at a faux-American Idol audition and started a riot in a GTA 5 roleplaying server

Vital stuff indeed. 

An FAQ warns that the addition of BattlEye may cause technical problems with some "non-cheat overlays and visual enhancement tools." You also won't be able to connect to official GTA Online servers when BattlEye is switched off. If you run into grief following the addition of BattlEye, a troubleshooting guide has advice on how to proceed.

Despite those potential headaches, this is a big move for Rockstar. Never forget, cheaters or not, GTA Online is massively popular and a huge moneymaker. Years after Take-Two Interactive tried to force an end to the popular FiveM mod for GTA Online, Rockstar embraced the mod scene to the point that it acquired the studio that made it, saying it wants to "help them find new ways to support this incredible community and improve the services they provide to their developers and players."

As to why Rockstar has integrated BattlEye into GTA Online after almost a decade of going without, Rockstar Games follower Tez2 speculated that it "could be seen as preparations for the arrival of the Gen9 version [of Grand Theft Auto 5] on PC." 

That would be the hoped-for but thus far not-actually-extant update that will, if it actually happens, make the PC version of GTA 5 and GTAO equivalent to the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 editions of the game, adding graphical and performance enhancements, new content like the Career Progress progression and rewards system, and access to the GTA+ subscription service. I've reached out to Rockstar for more information on that front and will update if I receive a reply.