The creator of Grand Theft Auto has
warned there might be teething problems
as its online version launches.
Last week Rockstar North admitted it was
facing "unanticipated" pressure because sales
of GTA 5 had been stronger than expected.
"We are working around the clock to buy and
add more servers," its blog said.
But it added that matters could be "more
temperamental than such things usually are"
because using so many computers introduced
their own issues.
In the online version of the 18-rated violent
crime game, up to 16 players can interact
simultaneously within a virtual environment
and create personalised avatars.
It is included free with every copy of the GTA
5 console video game. According to one
analyst's figures, more than 15 million units
of the title had been sold by early last week.
"At a conservative estimate I would expect
about two million players to log on to GTA
Online within the first 24 hours," added Keza
MacDonald, UK games editor for IGN.com, the
video game and entertainment site.
"Rockstar has never done an online game of
this scale before, so they are totally unproven
in terms of their network infrastructure.
"And even the highly successful World of
Warcraft at its peak didn't have as many
people playing online at once as GTA is likely
to have, so it wouldn't surprise me if there
were problems."
Other bestsellers have faced issues after their
servers failed to cope with demand.
Owners of Electronic Art's Sim City - which
requires players to be logged into its servers to
play - experienced waits of up to 30 minutes
to get started and then sluggish gameplay when
it went on sale in March.
EA later apologised and offered a free title to
those affected as compensation. It said more
people had logged on than it had expected,
adding they then played differently to the way
its testers had.
The previous year Activision Blizzard saw its
servers for Diablo 3 come under severe
pressure after its launch.
The term #error37 trended on Twitter after
players were shown the code alongside a
message telling them to wait and try logging
on later. At one point the firm took its
websites offline to reduce demand.
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