New ‘GTA Online’ paywall has upset fans in a big way

GTA Online has made more money than any other entertainment product ever, and yet it’s not enough for Rockstar, as the company has paywalled a fan-requested quality-of-life feature, and the news isn’t going down well.

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Previously, to collect all the money your businesses generated, you’d have to physically go to them and open each safe. Now, there’s a new in-game app called Vinewood Club that you can open on you in-game phone. It can be used to automatically collect all the money from your businesses, request vehicles, and restock your ammo. The catch? It’s only available to players who pay £6.99 ($7.99) per month for GTA+.

As noted by GamesRadar+, fans are not happy about Rockstar monetising a quality-of-life feature. “Should be a default feature,” reads the top comment on the Reddit thread. “Since day 1 there were already concerns GTA+ would start locking out genuinely good features from non-subscribing players,” added another player.

GTA+ members can now claim business earnings from their character’s phone
byu/peazoh ingtaonline

“Based on some of the rhetoric from the rockstar CEO, I honestly think GTA 6 might end up having the most monetization of any non-MMO game ever,” wrote one fan. People think this doesn’t paint a hopeful picture for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, due sometime in 2025.

“Man, theyre gonna have a field day locking shit up behind gta+ on VI Online,” wrote another. It’s normal these days for games to gate additional material behind paid DLC, especially cosmetics, but it feels egregious to lock a quality-of-life feature that’s been requested for years behind this. Without it, players will have to spend time doing the busy work of travelling between businesses to collect their in-game cash.

In other news, Elden Ring has a new build that should make Shadow of the Erdtree much easier.

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