Over popularity can be dangerous and this fact has been proven in the world of games over the time very often. Publishers buy the best servers with cutting edge technology and best professionals to take care and to ensure that the game is not left out in the cold but when the millions of the crazy fans start to hit it, they just loose it. We only have to look at the chaotic arrival of EA's Sim City or Blizzard's Diablo III for evidence of this. Both games pretty much collapsed at launch, with fans unable to sign in for many hours and instead jamming the forums with questions and complaints.
| Rockstar Games |
The quite same situation stands in front of the creatrors of Grand Theft Auto 5, Rockstar Games. Launched last month to huge critical acclaim, Grand Theft Auto V has sold in the region of 15m copies, making it the year's biggest entertainment release.The game made nearly $1bn in its first day - a record for a game or film. And later at noon the publisher is unlocking the ambitious multiplayer mode: Grand Theft Auto Online. Providing fans with a persistent version of the game's world, Los Santos, owners of GTA V can access the new mode for free, join gangs, and get involved in heists, races, death matches and other nefarious activities, all the time earning Reputation Points which unlock new goodies such as weapons and cars.In a post on its Newswire site last week, the publisher stated:
"One thing we are already aware of, and are trying to alleviate as fast as we can, is the unanticipated additional pressure on the servers due to a significantly higher number of players than we were anticipating at this point – we are working around the clock to buy and add more servers, but this increased scale is only going to make the first few days even more temperamental than such things usually are."
So the key message from Rockstar is, bear with us. This is effectively a mass open beta. As the website puts it: "The first couple of weeks we expect to be heavily focused on tuning the experience as it goes from internal testing to the reality of being played by tons of people in the real world so that all the usual problems for an online game are overcome. We hope it will all run incredibly smoothly, but please bear with us if it doesn't, and help us fix any and all problems!"
SimCity developer Maxis later admitted it had been "dumb" not to anticipate the level of demand after all, GTA IV sold more than 25m copies.
Moreover, each time you play, you enter a server that is currently restricted to 16 players and you can carry out heists or indulge in a spot of racing around the Southern California landscape.
The 18-rated game - which had a £170m ($274m) budget - has been widely praised by critics and the public.
Games website IGN called it a "masterpiece", and one of the greatest video games ever made.
Edge magazine called it a "remarkable achievement" that sent a message to the rest of the industry.
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