The Real Reason GTA Online Changed Los Santos Customs

Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online have proven that Los Santos and the surrounding areas may be the most dangerous locale in video games. However, it has been discovered that at least one place in the game has been recently altered to be perfectly safe from unscrupulous players. That place is none other than the ride-pimping haven known as Los Santos Customs.

At Los Santos Customs, players can take their car in for a new paint job and all other kinds of upgrades. However, players can also trade in or sell one of their ill-gotten rides for some cold hard cash. This is especially handy if you're one of those players that's way better at stealing cars than winning at the casino.

Of course, players are also able to sell their own personal vehicles to Los Santos Customs for a bit of extra scratch, which is where this latest discovery comes into play. 

If you are selling a stolen vehicle, the cash you get will be added to the wallet that your character carries on you. However, as explained in a thread on Reddit, if you are selling a personal vehicle to Los Santos Customs, the money now goes directly into your character's bank account. This is an important distinction, because griefers in Grand Theft Auto Online absolutely love to lurk around outside of Los Santos Customs so that they can beat up and mug people for their recently-earned funds. By hanging out at the garage and using people as their own personal ATMs, these kinds of players have managed to become quite a problem for some of the classier criminals in GTA Online.

Because of the change to how the money is deposited, players who traded in a personal vehicle are no longer in danger of having that brand new deposit stolen from them. It's safely tucked away in their bank account. However, players who trade in a stolen vehicle still run the risk of being robbed as soon as they step outside. It almost looks like the game is telling players, "We'll keep your money safe. But if you stole that care, then you may end up getting exactly what you deserve in this situation."

It's unclear when this change happened, but it's a welcome one that certainly helps out players. One Reddit user seems to think that the update has been around since January. However, it is such a small quality of life improvement that Rockstar Games apparently didn't feel the need to announce it with any form of patch notes.

It is worth noting that other games have come under fire in recent weeks for featuring updates that were seemingly not announced to players, which resulted in quite a bit of confusion. For example, Epic Games appears to have adjusted the aim assist functions in Fortnite multiple times without informing players. Players are noting multiple different results when it comes to aim assist in combat, including some players now being able to make perfect shots from much further away than before. Meanwhile, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has received multiple tweaks here and there to spawn rates and even the availability of in-game achievements for pro players. Again, these were done without telling anyone, and they seemed to make things worse.

Unlike these issues, however, the latest GTA changes appear to be focused squarely on improving the experience for players who aren't expecting others to play unfairly. As mentioned by one user on Reddit, there is no way to see if other players are nearby when inside of Los Santos Customs, so it's pretty much impossible to anticipate a mugging. This change to how the money is deposited will make it much easier for players to hang onto their cash.

This fix also couldn't have come at a better time. Last month, the Epic Games Store gave Grand Theft Auto 5 away for free for a limited time. This was an awesome deal in theory, but it unfortunately led to some unforeseen issues for Epic, Rockstar, and the GTA fanbase. The Epic Games Store's launcher repeatedly crashed due to the sheer volume of players joining and downloading the game. 

Not only that, but hackers had a field day with making Grand Theft Auto Online into their own personal playground. Even people who were attempting to play GTA 5's single player story mode reported that hackers had somehow managed to spawn all kinds of wacky stuff in their game. Though it appears as though Rockstar is catching up with a lot of these cheaters, it's good to know that there are a few places in the game that are still safe.

Now, if we can just do something about those ridiculous alien dudes that keep mugging people in GTA Online.