GTA V's Trevor character.

Grand Theft Auto V graphics downgrade: Rockstar is ‘investigating a fix’

Join independent journalists and industry decision-makers at GamesBeat NEXT, returning to San Francisco November 2–3. The event brings together 500 executives, founders, investors and tech leaders shaping the $200 billion interactive economy for candid discussions on gaming, entertainment, technology and AI, plus executive networking and opportunities to build partnerships and close major deals.

Updates are supposed to make games better, but that’s not what happened with Rockstar’s latest patch for Grand Theft Auto V.

The open-world crime game recently got a patch on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 that actually made the graphics look a tiny bit worse. A comparison video, which we’ve embedded below, shows considerably more geometric pop-in and other visual downgrades. In its changelog for the 1.08 patch, Rockstar only listed fixes to its online mode and other minor improvements to the campaign.

We’ve asked Rockstar for a comment, but it has recently updated its support site with the following message:

“We are aware of some graphical issues on the Xbox One and PS4 versions of GTAV after the most recent title update,” reads the post. “And we are investigating a fix now.”

Check out the visual comparison below — the changes are subtle, so keep your eyes on details like shadows and distant buildings:

This visual degradation was quite a surprise for fans of Grand Theft Auto — especially since many consider GTA V on PS4 and Xbox One one of the best-looking release for each platform.

Of course, the best-looking version of GTA V is still to come. Rockstar will release the game on PC April 14 — and it will likely come with no visual downgrades.