Rockstar Games decided to give out a free Christmas surprise in Grand Theft Auto V to anyone who signed onto the game’s online multiplayer mode for the holiday. Unfortunately, most GTA V users were unable to receive their free in-game Christmas gifts since both Xbox Live and the Playstation Network were down for the majority of the day. As a result, Rockstar Support announced on Friday that they have temporarily extended the gift redemption process within GTA V to ensure everyone has a chance to pick up their free items even if they were unable to do so on Christmas Day.

“Due to issues with PSN & XBL connectivity, we’re extending the GTA Online Festive Surprise Christmas Day inventory gifts for the time being.”

The special Grand Theft Auto V holiday gift package gives players access to a few holiday fireworks as well as a special Christmas stocking mask that lets users spread holiday cheer while disguising their identities within GTA Online. These free seasonal gifts were originally intended to be offered only on Christmas Day, but Rockstar Games has decided to make the items available for a longer period of time since all console services recently experience ongoing connectivity issues. The developer has not yet specified how long they plan to continue to hand out the free GTA V gifts so users are urged to log onto GTA Online as soon as possible.

The decision to extend the online Christmas gift redemption in GTA V came after several gamers repeatedly asked Rockstar Games if they vould have another chance to receive the items due to the online issues that have plagued both Xbox Live and PSN over the past 24 hours. Earlier today, the developer replied to one such fan request on the official Rockstar Support website by stating that they didn’t have any information to discuss at that time. However, the team decided later in the afternoon that they would indeed give GTA V players another opportunity to pick up their Christmas gifts.

However, while Rockstar Games extended the timeframe to receive the holiday items, they did not give fans another chance to experience the temporary snowfall that the holiday event briefly brought to GTA V. For a few days, users were able to enjoy a snow-covered Los Santos. This gave gamers a chance to see the normally sunny setting of GTA V in a new light. Players were even allowed to have in-game snowball fights thanks to the change in weather.

Unfortunately, the online outages of Xbox Live and PSN made it so that many fans were unable to play in the limited snow of GTA V. While the developer decided to extend redemption of the title’s Christmas gifts, Rockstar Games did not extend the festive in-game event that blanketed San Andreas in snow. Users have already started a petition to bring back the snow on the Rockstar Support website.

For now, fans can still receive their Christmas gifts within GTA V even if the snow has now been removed from the game. Additionally, as the Inquisitrreported earlier this week, Rockstar Games also released a small title update prior to the start of the holiday break that improved the general online stability of the game.

[Image via Rockstar Games]