Rockstar fans still likely have more than a year to wait for the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, and that wait just got a little more difficult for some players using GTA Online to pass the time. GTA+, the subscription service that offers various benefits in GTA Online, is raising its monthly price by one third, and players are, unsurprisingly, not happy with the change.
On both PlayStation and Xbox, the price of a GTA+ subscription has risen from $5.99 to $7.99 per month, as first spotted by Reddit user mercadess550owner and reported by Rockstar Intel. This marks the first time that Rockstar has increased the GTA+ subscription price since the service launched in March 2022. New subscribers will have to pay the higher price starting now to begin a subscription, but existing members won’t have to pay the higher rate until renewing in June.
Rockstar Games has not publicly spoken about the change and did not immediately respond to Inverse’s request for comment.
Before the price increase was spotted, Rockstar Games recently announced a new bonus coming to GTA+. While the membership already gave players a free $500,000 in-game for GTA Online each month, members will receive an additional $1 million every month from April to August.
While this is the first time Rockstar has raised the price of GTA+, it’s been steadily increasing the features that come with a subscription since the service’s debut two years ago. On top of the free in-game cash, GTA+ gave members access to free vehicle upgrades, more auto shops, and cosmetic items, plus boosted rewards and lower costs for activities like street races. GTA+ later expanded to include a catalog of free Rockstar Games. While it’s not much compared to Xbox Game Pass, the service does offer free access to the original Red Dead Redemption and older Grand Theft Auto titles. Bully and L.A. Noire are also set to join the GTA+ catalog later in 2024.
Still, fans aren’t happy about the unexpected price increase, even with the service itself growing beyond its initial offerings. The response to the Reddit post that first brought attention to the change has been universally negative, with some players decrying the service for not providing enough even at its original price and speculating that it could be increased even further around the launch of GTA 6. Some players even say they’re canceling their GTA+ subscriptions before the change goes into effect for existing users in June.
It’s still not clear how GTA+ will be integrated with GTA 6, if at all. GTA Online itself is a big money-maker for publisher Take-Two Interactive due to its micro-transactions, but how much the subscription factors into that hasn’t been revealed. With more than a year before the launch of GTA 6, we still know very little about the game, and that includes how it will integrate online play. Given how successful GTA Online has been, it seems safe to assume that GTA 6 will have some persistent online mode, but whether it will resemble the current offerings, or cross over in any way with the existing GTA Online and GTA+ are yet to be seen.
Grand Theft Auto Online is available in GTA 5 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
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