Rockstar has just the thing for gamers frustrated by the stuttering debut of its Grand Theft Auto Online mode: $500,000 of in-game cash. The company announced on its Newswire blog on Friday that the 'special stimulus package' would be dropped into the world perhaps as early as this week.

The cash injection will be provided to any purchaser of Grand Theft Auto V who has attempted to play the Online mode during October. Launched at the beginning of the month, the service has been plagued by technical problems, including disappearing player-characters, and unreliable server access. Many gamers have lost thousands of in-game dollars, during the opening weeks.

"In order to keep the current worldwide in-game economy balanced, we will be providing this GTA$ to players via two deposits of $250,000," explained Rockstar on its website. "We will announce specific dates as soon as possible, but are currently hoping to be able to make the first deposit by the end of next week (after we've confirmed that issues causing game progress loss have been fixed) with the second installment to happen by the end of the month. For players who experienced cloud server errors, connection issues, and lost game progress and characters in these first days of GTA Online, we hope this GTA$ helps to facilitate a fresh start or makes your continued life in Los Santos and Blaine County extra sweet."

There has been controversy over Rockstar's decision to include microtransactions in the Online mode, allowing participants to pay real money for packages of in-game cash. The company insists it has balanced the experience to allow players to quickly earn money through in-game activities such as missions and car thefts. This stimulus package will at least allow microtransaction-adverse players to quickly access some of the upper end purchases, such as apartments and multi-car garages (although players will still have to rank up to unlock fancy-pants guns and vehicle upgrades).

Reactions have, as ever, been mixed. "Great news," wrote one reader of the Rockstar site. "I've stuck with the game even thou (sic) there have been issues but this just shows rock star have listened and shows respect to us gamers. Cheers Rockstar". However, one comment on Time's coverage of the news, complained, "I hate the fact they are giving everybody 500K. this is because i worked for a long time dragging myself through missions to earn enough to buy a 150K apartment and a 155K car... and now everybody even the people still on level 5 and such will be able to buy this stuff and they don't deserve it."

It just goes to show that money can't always buy happiness. But it can buy a desirable residence in Rockford Hills and a new spoiler for your Pfister Comet super car.