GTA Online Will Shut Down On Xbox 360, PS3 Later This Year

After nearly eight years of support from Rockstar, GTA Online is being taken down, but just on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Starting on December 16, 2021, players will no longer be able to access their GTA Online characters on those platforms.

If you've been playing GTA Online on an Xbox 360 or PS3 exclusively, this news is especially bad, as there is no way to transfer your character to modern platforms. In a post detailing the shutdown of online services for multiple games, Rockstar said that "There is no feature available to transfer character data or progress from those platforms. All website stat tracking for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 via the Rockstar Games Social Club will also be removed."

It's just as well that players who have spent cash on shark cards for their Xbox 360 or PS3 characters won't be able to get a refund. "Virtual currency and virtual goods purchases are platform-specific and cannot be refunded or transferred," according to Rockstar.

Along with online services for GTA V, Rockstar will also be cutting its online support for L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3 on Xbox 360 and PS3. For the latter, that means the game's multiplayer will likely be taken offline. But for both, access to "website stat tracking via the Rockstar Games Social Club" will no longer be available. These features are set to be cut on September 16, 2021.

While the online services for these three titles are being taken down, their single-player components won't be affected at all. Players will still be able to play GTA V, L.A. Noire, and Max Payne 3 on an Xbox 360 or PS3, just without any online content.

In other GTA Online news, the game will be getting a full standalone release later this year. On November 11, 2021, GTA V's next-gen port is arriving for the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, along with a separate version of GTA Online.