GTA V online predator microtransactions.

I read last week that Rockstar were giving a cool $1 Million each month to people with a next gen console (PS5 for me) who are playing GTAV online, until the new updated version is released. This piqued my interest as I’d never managed to get into the online game, beyond driving, even after owning it for nearly 8 years! This was initially because of my poor internet connection, then later due to the screaming kids and griefers… more that I didn’t want to grind to earn any GTA$, and I certainly wasn’t going to buy any of their Shark credit cards.

So I log on yesterday, to see my GTA back account expand by 6 zeros. Now I already had a hanger, I enjoyed the flying missions in the single player game, and in GTAIV previously, but I couldn’t do anything as I wasn’t a CEO of a company. This recent cash injection allowed me to buy an office and acquire the CEO title, with enough left over to pick up a warehouse to expand my ‘Crime Lord’s’ business.

Now I’m back into a virtual life in Los Santos, buying a few packages to pick up & sell on, although still not able to expand my smuggling empire as each time I pick up the target plane the sky is full on player character jet planes, and what look to be rocket bikes?

Enjoying my gangster life so much I decided to take advantage of the PS5 SSD, as one of the GTAV frustrations was the loading times. Cyberpunk 2077 is now relegated to the external harddrive, and GTAV is stored local, and I can really tell the difference.

Fast forward to this evening when I booted up the PS5 I find a free item listed on PSN PS Plis: GTA$1,000,000for GTA Online! I bagged this, expecting it to be the same as the million that I’d already claimed, only to find that I received it again, kaching!

So now I should receive the free million each month, fingers crossed it will be double, but now what do I spend the dollars on. Thinking a nightclub, or clubhouse, then I visited the casino for the first time, wow!

I can now understand how Rockstar have made so much money from GTAV Online, it ticks all of the boxes and beyond for online predator microtransactions. From clothes, fast cars, buildings, strippers, horse racing, roulette, black jack, and tanks, you can get it all… the only thing that seems to be free is the drugs.

It’s an amazing epic world that has been created, and I plan on getting more familiar with the online game, but I really dislike how it has become a platform to remove money form those who are vulnerable. Some very intelligent unscrupulous people have created a beautiful cash cow that they will have milked over 3 generations of consoles, and PC platforms, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon.