Wasted! Free GTA V Browser Port Vanishes Almost As Fast As It Appeared

The gaming community might be salivating over the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto VI, but diehard fans are still tinkering and working on fun projects that revolve around prior entries in this legendary series. One such project made GTA 5 playable within a web browser, but unsurprisingly, Rockstar’s lawyers worked swiftly to take it down before it could gain any traction.

The website playgta5[.]com allowed anyone to play GTA 5 for free without having to install the game on a machine. It all worked within a web browser, so long as it supported hardware acceleration. Of course, this immediately got the attention of Rockstar, which took no time in levying DMCA strikes against the site along with users who were posting videos of it in action.

It wasn’t just the single player campaign that was made playable, either. Some users were posting video of themselves playing alongside their friends in GTA Online, which has kept the game relevant for well over a decade and brought in gobs of steady revenue. This aspect in particular likely lead to the studio’s swift response, as it wouldn’t want anything messing with its cash cow.

Unfortunately, the developers behind this unique effort didn’t share details as to how they managed to achieve it, and none of the code was posted in a repository such as GitHub. However, after the game was removed the developers posted a message that was shared on X by user Pixel Gamer 4k that said, “Who wants the source code?” So, there’s a chance that something pops up in the future.