Highly anticipated: Rockstar has announced that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions of GTAV and GTA Online launch in less than two weeks. It shared details on new technical features and how players can transfer their progress from PS4 and Xbox One.
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series upgrades for GTA V and GTA Online will be available digitally on March 15, and at physical retail in April. Pre-orders and pre-loads start on March 8. On PS5 and Xbox Series, GTA Online will be available by itself, and it will be free to keep on PS5 until June.
Players can start transferring GTA V story mode progress now by selecting "Upload Save Game" in the Game tab of the pause menu, which will upload the save file to the Rockstar Games Social Club. They must then download the file to one of the new versions of the game within 90 days. Only one save game can be uploaded per platform at a time.
GTA Online progress will migrate automatically for players with Social Club accounts when they load the game on PS5 or an Xbox Series console. That migration includes characters, in-game currency, progression, stats, vehicles, properties, weapons, clothing, and player-created jobs. Currency bought through microtransactions can't move from PS4 to Xbox Series or from Xbox One to PS5, but that is allowed for currency earned through gameplay.
The new versions of GTA V will introduce 4K, gameplay at 60 frames per second, ray tracing, HDR, faster load times, and 3D audio. There will also be improvements to the density and variety of pedestrians and traffic, vegetation density, lighting, shadows, water reflections, anti-aliasing, motion blur, textures, and more. The PS5 version will feature haptic feedback and adaptive triggers through the DualSense controller.
Rockstar confirmed three graphics modes for GTA V on the current-gen consoles. Fidelity mode will run at 30fps in native 4K (on Xbox Series S it will upscale to 4K) with ray tracing. Performance mode will upscale to 4K and sacrifice ray tracing in order to reach 60fps. Performance RT mode will enable ray tracing with upscaled 4K while targeting 60fps, but it likely won't hold steadfast to that framerate.
GTA Online will get new vehicles and races when the upgraded version launches. The new Career Builder feature will let new players start the game with a redesigned tutorial and a pile of in-game currency. Rockstar is also changing GTA Online's main menu and making other quality-of-life changes.
There is no word yet on when Rockstar plans to bring all these changes to the PC versions of the games.