Update 5/17/2020: Most of the GTA 5 connectivity issues on the Epic Games Store appear to be resolved. Original story follows.
Last week, Epic Games shocked everyone by making the hugely popular Grand Theft Auto 5 available for free on the Epic Games Store. This resulted in a mad rush by people to claim the game for their Epic Games Store library, causing the Epic Games Store to crash in the process. Things were pretty smooth sailing once the Epic Games Store was back up and running, but now there are new issues, with players struggling to play the game at all.
Thousands of users have reported being able to play Grand Theft Auto 5 through the Epic Games Launcher, with the problems starting about 20 minutes ago or so. Players are getting an error about how GTA 5 is failing to "authenticate" with the Epic Games Store. Grand Theft Auto 5 appears to be working on other services, however, with console users on PS4 and Xbox One seemingly unaffected by the problems. Considering this, it appears to be an issue specific to the Epic Games Store, and not necessarily Rockstar Games, though more details are needed to be sure.
It's possible that the sheer number of people who claimed Grand Theft Auto 5 for free on the Epic Games Store and are playing it right now could be playing a role in these technical issues, but that's just speculation at this time.
We will update this post as soon as full services return to the Epic Games Store version of Grand Theft Auto 5.
Source: Down Detector
