We're sorry to hear that you're having issues with GTA V on PS3. Below you will find some Console Troubleshooting steps which may help resolve the issue. These are the official troubleshooting steps provided by Sony on their support site:
Before troubleshooting, please check the following:
a. Turn the console off and on.
b. Unplug all power cords and accessories, and then plug them back in firmly. Make sure all connections are secure.
c. Update your console software.
1.) Clearing the Game Data Utility:
a. In the XMB home menu, go to (Game) > [Game Data Utility].
Important: Make sure you select [Game Data Utility]. Do NOT select [Saved Data Utility], as this will delete all of your saved games files.
b. Highlight the game data utility file (i.e., name of a particular game you have been playing) you wish to delete.
c. Press the button and select [Delete].
d. Highlight "Yes" and press the button to confirm the deletion.
e. A message indicating the file is being deleted will appear.
f. A "Delete completed." message will appear once the file has been successfully deleted.
g. Once all of the files have been deleted, go back to the XMB home menu.
h. Reboot the game. You should be prompted to reinstall.
**Please note, if the game freezes during installation, please check the following article:
http://support.rockstargames.com/hc/en- ... tallation-2.) Ensure your PS3s firmware is up to date (settings > system update - on the main menu).
3.) Restore File System
If it is up to date then once again delete the game data.
Next follow the steps below:
a. Turn off Playstation®3.
b. Hold The power button down; The system will turn on and turn off once again.
c. Once the System has been shutdown, re-press you finger until you hear 2 consecutive beeps
d. When you hear the 2 beeps take finger off power button.
e. You will be prompted to plug in your controller via usb and then hit the PS button
f. The Recovery menu will pop up.
g. Select Restore File system
h. Repeat and Rebuild Database
4.) Disconnect your PS3 from the internet.
We have gotten reports that some players have been able to resolve their issues by disconnecting their console from the internet. It is possible that some freezes are related to some recent server outages that should be resolved shortly. If issues persist, disabling all internet connections on your console should prevent the game from attempting to access the servers. Obviously this is not ideal, but testing this should work at least for troubleshooting purposes, and should be resolved quickly.
5.) Clear save files.
Some crashes can be related to corrupted save data, especially crashes at a specific spot, or crashes on launch. The next step would be to isolate the save files, and see if launching without them remedies the issue. There are several ways of doing this:
a. Deleting all files in the Save Data Utility related to GTA V. Note: This method will result in permanent loss of data. If the game crashed the first time it launched, no valuable information is stored in here, so they may be deleted freely. If you already played the game for many hours, you may want to consider trying another method.
b. Backing up all Save Data Utility files on an external device before deleting all files as described above.
c. Possibly the simplest method, and one that also might isolate other potential issues would be to test the game from a brand new PSN ID/Profile. The save files for PS3 games are tied to a specific user. Launching from a new user should cause the game to pull from a brand new pool of files.
5.) Install the game to a new section of the Hard Drive.
Another possible troubleshooting step would be to attempt to install the game to a new section of the hard drive. Typically, when installing, and reinstalling games, the system will attempt to reinstall over the same block of space on the HDD. While there is no function to manually force the game to install on a different block of space, there is one possible workaround that might force the game to install on a new section.
Basically, what we are going to do is uninstall the game, clear the cache, and then install some unrelated data to the Hard Drive, which should get installed to the block of space where GTA V was previously installing.
Please try the following:
a. Uninstall the game from the Games and Apps folder. Delete everything related to GTA V that is not a save file.
b. Clear the system cache, as was described above.
c. Install about 7-8GB of unrelated content. If you have your console connected to the internet, the simplest thing here would be to download a bunch of demos from PSN. The content is unimportant, you never even have to play the demos, the point here is to just eat up some hard drive space, and when you reinstall GTA V, force the console to install the game to a section that was not previously used. If you do not have a a connection, installing 10-12 music CDs should use up enough space, although more might be needed. The idea here is to try to use up approximately the same amount of space as GTA V's install, which is about 8.5GB.
d. Reinstall GTA V, and see if conditions improve.
6.) Test the game on a second console, or new hard drive.
This last step is potentially the trickiest step, depending on alternate hardware availability, but probably the most important step for determining the cause of major issues on any console. That step would be to test the disc on a separate console. If you have a friend or family member with a PS3, we strongly recommend installing the game on their console, and see if issues persist.
If you continue to have issues, please let us know the following:
The model of your Playstation 3
The size of your hard drive,
How much free space is available
The contents of any error code, if applicable. If possible, please submit a screen shot of any error messages, or give the presice wording of the error.
Please also provide us with a detailed summary of which of the above steps you were able to try, and details on what effects they had. Additionally, if you were able to try it in another console and the same issue occurred, please provide the model/HD size, etc. of the second system you tested the game on.
Once we receive this information, we will continue to investigate.