This model has largely given way to the “freemium” model where publishers give away the game itself for free, but much of the game content is locked behind choosing extended playtimes “grinding” for materials, or l option to skip that grind with real money payout.
grand theft auto online bears many similarities to what we usually consider to be the qualities of “MMO” games. Although it’s not “massively multiplayer” locally – sessions normally include a maximum of 32 players – there are tens of thousands of players online at any one time. He named player characters with steady progress and all the other things we think of in MMO games: gear, appearance customization, player housing, challenging multiplayer “raid” events, and more.
In this context, it should probably come as no surprise that Rockstar is launching a subscription service for GTA online. It’s called GTA+, and it costs $6 a month. Ponying for the premium subscription gets you $500,000 in the game’s GTA$ currency and additional GTA$ on ‘Shark Cards’ each month, plus exclusive perks. Here is the list of benefits for the first month:
- The Principe Deveste Eight – plus a free upgrade from Hao’s Special Works before it becomes available to the general public – plus the HSW Orange Trip and HSW CMYK Glitch liveries.
- The Auto Shop located in La Mesa, features an assortment of gameplay updates from Los Santos Tuners. Current Auto Shop owners can relocate to La Mesa at no additional cost.
- Cancellation of LS Car Meet membership fees. Current members of the LS Car Meet with GTA+ will receive a GTA$50,000 refund during this event period.
- Yacht owners can upgrade to the Aquarius Super Yacht at no additional cost.
- The Frog Gusset t-shirt and the Broker Prolaps basketball top and shorts automatically added to your wardrobe.
- The conveyor livery for the Mammoth Avenger, HVY APC and TM-02 Khanjali.
- A selection of free paints and emblems for the Auto Shop.
- 3x GTA$ & RP on Hao’s Special Works Race Series.
- 2X Car Meet Rep on the Street Race series.
It would be easy to criticize Rockstar for this decision as the company has already taken $60 of your money for the game. That’s to say nothing of the cumbersome nature of GTA online this practically forces players to buy Shark Cards for in-game currency if they want to progress at a reasonable rate. There’s also the fact that the company is charging money for what is honestly an extremely minor update on current-gen consoles.
In fairness, however, many players who purchased GTA V (including GTA online) bought it almost ten years ago. Just like other great online games, GTA online has seen years of additional content and improvements through continuous updates, and it costs money to create.
If you own GTA V, you don’t have to pay Rockstar anything to play it for the rest of eternity, so it’s fair to give players the option to spend a little each month to support continued development. However, the list of benefits, at least for the first month, is quite weak.
