Daily Briefing: Friday 25th March (Patreon)

Rockstar Introduce GTA+, A $6 Per Month Subscription Service, To GTA Online

After releasing GTA’s next-gen update, Rockstar have added a $6 per month subscription to GTA Online. It delivers recurring in-game cash ($500k), in-game properties to buy that unlock previous gameplay updates, special vehicle upgrades, currency bonuses, member-only discounts and more - paints, emblems, outfits, etc.

• Leave it to Rockstar to take an exceptionally-monetised game and push it even further. Combined with the GTA Online standalone version on PS+, it shows they want that money to keep rolling in for years and will actively push towards it. GTA 6 must be proving VERY expensive.

Playstation’s Subscription Service To Be Announced Next Week

According to Bloomberg, Sony will announce Spartacus next week - that’s the codename for their Game Pass competitor, rolling PS+ and PS Now into one subscription and adding more features split across 3 tiers. Of interest to most is the oft-discussed ‘classic’ games on the highest tier. Will Sony release a huge portion of the PS1 & PS2 back catalogue to subscribers? Will they come with improvements or be lazily software-emulated? Will PS3 games be playable? Find out next week.

• Please, please, do this properly. If this looks like Nintendo’s abysmal NSO offering instead of a high-quality experience, it’ll be a massive disappointment and a waste of Playstation’s potential: that incredible legacy of games.

Gran Turismo 7 Devs Working On Player Problems

In the latest update from developers posted on the Playstation Blog, Kazunori Yamauchi has apologised to players. They’re offering 1 million credits as goodwill, they’re doubling the credit rewards, adding events, adding ‘high rewards’, and in the future they’ll continue to add high-value events and allow for the in-game resale of cars.

• This is the power of making user voices heard, of leveraging that voice - the publisher and developer will be forced to react. Hopefully, these fixes can be implemented rapidly and solve the issues that left the GT community feeling genuinely betrayed.