Yesterday, some players in the community were hoping for GTA VI news. Today, Rockstar announced a subscription service for GTA Online, simply dubbed GTA+.
Not quite the timeline we were expecting either, but it’s something the community has speculated about in the past, and it’s coming. It will officially launch exclusively for new-generation console players next week on Tuesday 29th March.
In a nutshell, GTA+ is an optional subscription open to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players that will offer monthly access to free items or bonuses and a deposit of in-game cash. Content, so far, will not necessarily be exclusive, it’ll just be free or discounted. Below is a run down of the facts and figures we’ve put together so far.
The cost
GTA+ subscription costs $5.99 per month. You will receive GTA$500,000 cash each month as well as access to a rotating set of free items, bonuses, or early access content.
If you were to subscribe for a year, you’d end up paying $71.88 annually while receiving GTA$6,000,000 in cash deposits.
All of this would be in addition to your regular PS+ or XBL subscription(s).
Member benefits for the first month
- Free Principe Deveste Eight
- Free (and early access) to HSW upgrades for the Principe Deveste Eight
- HSW Orange Trip livery
- HSW CMYK Glitch livery
- Conveyor livery (for Mammoth Avenger, HVY APC, TM-02 Khanjali)
- Selection of paints and emblems from auto shop (unknown styles)
- Gusset Frog t-shirt
- Broker Prolaps basketball top & shorts
- Free auto shop in La Mesa (existing owners can re-locate for free)
- Waived LS Car Meet membership fee (existing members will receive $50k)
- Free Aquarius Super Yacht upgrade for existing yacht owners
- Triple money and RP in HSW Race Series
- Double car meet reputation in Street Race Series
- Access to ‘GTA+ Shark Card bonuses’ – i.e. if you buy a Shark Card you receive more cash than the base amount
Worth of items received from subscribing
The below information was gathered by WildBrick142, so all credit + massive thanks goes to him for putting it together
- Free Principe Deveste Eight
- Car cost: $1,795,000
- Free HSW upgrades for the Principe Deveste Eight
- Deveste Eight: $1,795,000
- Average HSW upgrade: $870,111
- Average vehicle AND HSW upgrade price: $2,274,111
- Possible Deveste Eight upgrade price: between ~$480,000 and ~$850,000
- Total cost for HSW performance parts: $277,500
- HSW Orange Trip livery
- $0 as it’s a special unlock unavailable to others
- HSW CMYK Glitch livery
- $0 as it’s a special unlock unavailable to others
- Conveyor livery (for Mammoth Avenger, HVY APC, TM-02 Khanjali)
- $0 as it’s a special unlock unavailable to others
- Selection of paints and emblems from auto shop (unknown styles)
- $178,500 for all and any paint
- between $25,000 and $104,500 for emblems
- Gusset Frog t-shirt
- $0 as it’s a special unlock unavailable to others
- Broker Prolaps basketball top & shorts
- $0 as it’s a special unlock unavailable to others
- Free auto shop in La Mesa (existing owners can re-locate for free)
- $1,920,000 excluding upgrades
- Waived LS Car Meet membership fee (existing members will receive $50k)
- $50,000
- Free Aquarius Super Yacht upgrade for existing yacht owners
- Aquarius yacht cost: $8,000,000
- Pisces yacht cost: $7,000,000
- Orion yacht cost: $6,000,000
- Cost of upgrading to Aquarius from Orion or Pisces: $2,000,000
- Aquarius price ($8,000,000) – trade-in value of Orion ($6,000,000/2=$3,000,000) = $5,000,0000 value (Pisces 500K less)
- Triple money and RP in HSW Race Series
- A HSW street race with 27 players pays out $22,500 for first place, and $1,760 for the 16th place
- Double car meet reputation in Street Race Series
- Cash payouts every few ‘milestone’ ranks so if anything you can get those faster
Including the 500k cash deposit, but excluding the triple/double money bonuses as that is player dependent, this list suggests an estimated range of $9,726,000 to $10,675,500 worth of “free” stuff for subscribing.
Existing Shark Card prices for comparison when deciding cost vs worth
Megalodon Shark Card – GTA$8,000,000 – $99.99
Whale Shark Card – GTA$3,500,000 – $49.99
Great White Shark Card – GTA$1,500,000 – $19.99
Bull Shark Card – GTA$500,000 – $9.99
Tiger Shark Card – GTA$200,000 – $4.99
Red Shark Card – GTA$100,000 – $2.99
Is it worth it?
Well, that is up to you. If you are a frequent player already, then the answer is likely no, and despite what the Newswire suggests, right now it doesn’t appear to be aimed at “long-standing” players anyway.
If you want to take all these numbers at face value *and* assume that the monthly bonuses will remain the same value throughout the year, then that means you could possibly be trading an estimated $71.88 IRL cash for $120,000,000 worth of in-game “freebies” with GTA+. If you were to try and achieve the same amount by buying Shark Cards, you would have to purchase 15 Megalodons for $1500 IRL cash. Quite a difference.
The community reaction has been quite adverse, and I can understand why. My initial opinion was formed out of concern for the future more than anything else. The suggestion that GTA+ provides value to “long-standing” players is still very questionable. Early access content I can live with, but paywalling content later down the line would cause massive division in the playerbase (and please no NFTs!). These numbers certainly favour frequent Shark Card purchasers rather than the regular joes, however, though the ‘moral of the story’ is for another time. For now, we will keep this article purely factual and we’ll see how the landscape changes once GTA+ has officially launched. We’re also throwing together a Sound Off from us three musketeers for a more opinionated discussion.
Want to express your own? Join us on GTAForums.