Grand Theft Auto Online may include microtransactions for in-game cash

One of the surprise announcements when GTA V got officially revealed was the introduction of Grand Theft Auto Online–a persistent online world set in the GTA universe with regular content updates.

It launches at the beginning of October for all GTA V owners, and Rockstar has been very clear stating GTA Online will never be sold separately or charged for. However, the reason why that is the case may have been revealed by Reddit user 1880, who has been digging through an XML document related to the store section of the game.

What he discovered was the existence of four cash cards that give you $100,000, $200,000, $500,000, or $1,250,000 of in-game cash. Combined with the fact it is meant to be quite difficult to make money in the game, it is being suggested that Rockstar intends to charge real money for those cash cards. If that’s the case, then GTA Online is free because Rockstar is going down the free-to-play route and intends to fund it with microtransactions.

Here’s what the cash cards actually look like in the store:

The general response to this on Reddit is that everyone hopes this isn’t what Rockstar intends to do. However, paying to keep the game running, as well as producing new content on a regular basis, costs money and Rockstar needs to fund that somehow. You could argue they will make more than enough from sales ofGTA V, but Rockstar is a business and needs to maximize profits wherever it can. Looking at this from a purely business perspective, microtransactions make a lot of sense and should bring in a regular flow of new revenue beyond game sales.

With the launch of GTA Online only a week away, we don’t have to wait long to find out whether microtransactions are a thing or not. But even if they are, you can choose not to use them and (hopefully) still enjoy the online experience.