GTAV’s online multiplayer has been the subject of much discussion recently, not least because of the rumoured microtransactions it is said to include.
Today it appears those real-money payments are indeed included in the game, and sources close to Eurogamer – who’re already playing the online component – have been discussing just how much you can spend, and where your cash goes.
With less than a week to launch, the four GTA Online “cash cards” we reported on are yet to be officially announced, but it’s now believed gamers could spend between £1.99 and £13.49 on each virtual wallet top-up while playing online. We’ve detailed the prices below, although as with everything pre-launch, be mindful as these may still change prior to the mode going live on Tuesday.
$100,000 “Red Shark” Cash Card, £1.99
$200,000 “Tiger Shark” Cash Card, £3.49
$500,000 “Bull Shark” Cash Card, £6.99
$1,250,000 “Great White Shark” Cash Card, £13.49
These may seem – like everything Grand Theft Auto – quite extravagant, but it’s definitely worth noting that while GTA V and GTA Online are both set in the same game world, the in-game items react differently, especially with regards to finances.
A car that costs $1 million in the game’s single-player mode, for example, may be bought for considerably less online – although the game’s Achievements tease that it will then need to be insured if you’d like to keep if after an accident. A similar change applies to properties, with each player now only being able to purchase a single unit at any given time, re-selling each property as they move up the ladder. Again though, real estate online is significantly cheaper than that found offline, with Los Santos’ prime location now costing $400,000.
Naturally, with this re-balance of wealth, some things are cheaper, and others are more expensive. Mods to your cars and new weapons will be costly and as such most are initially out of normal financial reach. Thankfully, although time-limited consumables will be available, these readdressed costs, combined with GTA Online’s character ranking system – meaning, in essence, you can’t just buy an RPG unless you know how to handle it – ensure that no amount of real money can ‘boost’ a low-level character.
Either way, this is going to be quite the little earner for Rockstar, ensuring GTAV is still bringing in the profit long into their next title’s development cycle.
Full details of GTA Online, microtransactions and all, are expected to be released later this week, ahead of the game’s public launch on October 1st.
Source: Eurogamer
2ofclubs
Please be decent people here on TSA, unlike the morons on N4G. Judge when they actually reveal what it’ll cover. If it’s cosmetic only then surely there’s no issue or choice? However if it’s pay to win then rage is more than justified.
2ofclubs
Sorry, I meant ‘just choice’ not ‘no choice’.
KeRaSh
Well, you can directly buy ingame currency so it can be used for both cosmetic changes and to buy weapons, upgrades and whatnot to progress faster or gain an advantage.
Sounds like a cheap cash in to me but I’m not their target audience since I’m not going to buy GTA V anyways.
boeboe
The bloody cheek! How dare they!
Jones81
This is nothing more than greed, the game has already made a billion dollars!, why do they need to add this shit?, surely they’ll make enough from game sales alone. seems like their just rinsing it because the game is popular
no doubt they’ll spew out the classic ‘need to pay for servers etc’ line
3shirts
Sadly, I think you are right.
Games never used to work like this and now they suddenly all do. I can’t see a justification for this other than just because they can.
hol
I agree, there’s no advantage other than cosmetic or property. It won’t stop me from just having fun with mates on this.
cam the man
Hard to say what I think about the price of the cash cards until I see what things cost.
I don’t mind giving some money to the developers if I enjoy the game but I won’t be giving them a penny if it can be stolen by other players.
Bilbo_bobbins
such a shame Rockstar. I’m hoping you don’t really need this, since paying for a car is a bit ridiculous when you can grab one on the side of the road, and buy stuff after ranking up.
webby_15-0
If i win the lottery im goin to buy gta v and use all my winnings to become the best player in the world. Il then proceed to run around Los Santos screaming ‘you just got pwned’ whilst firing rockets from my gold rpg. A man can dream…
OneShotWook
Accepting futility is empowering,and will consequently save you 2 quid on a virtual hat.
xdarkmagician
while not a fan of microtransactions and those prices are hardly at the microtransaction level, £13.49 for a microtransactions- not a whole lot of “micro” about that. I’ll wait to see how easy it is to earn cash in-game before I scream foul. It might be completely possible to earn that 1.5 million over a weekend, especially if they still alow the stock market, as its fairly easy to manipulate the market in GTAV. Also I’ve notice there are a ton of ATMs in the game, so I’m fairly confident that as long as everybody isn’t forced to use the same ATM, stealing money will actually be difficult. It should be easy to just drive super fast to a secluded ATM get out and make the deposit. 15 people can’t stalk every ATM in the game.
CR8ZYH0RSE
When the time comes i’m expecting GTA V:Lag city.Red dead and GTA IV did it and it wasn’t pretty.Don’t get me wrong sometimes it was okay but those times that did lag just messed the experience up for me.
quinkill
this is great news. no pay to win, and I imagine the money goes straight into an account so cannot be robbed by anyone. I won’t be buying any of these but don’t care either way if anyone else is.
steverouse1234
That’s how I thought it would work but thought I must had missed something as your the first person I’ve seen who has put the same thing.