Grand Theft Auto V is a very good video game. Weâve known this for almost a decade, across more platforms than we ever should have had to know it. But one thing the game has never been able to sort out during that timeframe is its enormous loading time.
While on the one hand itâs completely understandableâthe game is loading an entire open world, and is doing it using old codeâon the other hand weâre now living in 2022 and 90-second load times are a pain in the ass.
With the game due for a next-gen re-release on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in a few hours, then, itâs probably a good time to check in and see how that particular concern is going. Especially since we donât really need to know any of the other improvements (of course itâll look niceâit looks great on PC, and looked great on PS4 Pro/Xbox One X as well).
VGC crunched the numbers from clocking âstart/loadâ to assuming control, and found that while on PlayStation 4 it took 1:33 to load the game, on PlayStation 5 that figure was down to âjustâ 27 seconds. I say âjustâ because while thatâs an enormous cut, itâs still a lot for a console that sold itself on having practically no load times (but again, weâll excuse this particular game since it was originally developed for the PlayStation 3).
In case you were wondering, Zack is currently playing Grand Theft Auto Online on PS5 for coverage later this week, and says the gameâs multiplayer mode is also enjoying much-improved load times.
If youâre looking at picking the game up (again) on new consoles, be warned there are some weird pricing discrepancies. As a launch offer until June 14, GTA Vâs story mode will be $10 on PS5 and GTA Online will be free, while on Xbox Series X|S the story mode will be $20 and GTA Online will be $10.
