A YouTuber has raised a source of concern for Rockstar and its fans. Will UK’s Online Safety Act ruin Grand Theft Auto 6 for UK gamers?
YouTuber CYBER BOI shared his fears on Twitter:
Really interested to see how Rockstar handle the online safety act for GTA 6.
The latest regs into it require ID for chat, voice chat, and monetisation features.
Whilst the game is 18+/M in most places, that’s surly not a prime money churner for Rockstar.
I expect the price of micro transactions to go through the roof to recoup the lost revenue from the people that can’t partake in it.
Also, I’m pretty sure the removal of messaging from Rockstars website (see @TezFunz2’s post) was probably because of the OSA. It would require them to implement age checks.
Loads of companies are now phasing out their web messaging counterparts around the same time.
Yes, We Already Covered Some Of The Consequences
Last week, Rockstar removed the ability to send messages in some countries. This is because of these countries’ new laws requiring age verification.
The two biggest countries that visibly added these new laws and rules were the US with COPPA and KOSA and the UK with OSA. And we can’t miss the irony of this happening.
Rockstar Pulling Video Game Features From Their Biggest Markets?
The US is of course the biggest market for video games, to this very day. The UK is itself one of the biggest markets on Europe, and worth making games for in its own right.
On top of that, Rockstar’s studios are spread across the UK and the US. So these limitations have been placed to the developers and the biggest fans of their games!
None of this is to belittle or disregard the real concerns about child safety for video games. But fans are right to be critical on how these rules paint too broad a brush on how gamers can access these games.
Could This Really Lead To Rockstar Pushing More Spending?
CYBER BOI shared a scenario where Rockstar could raise prices. But they have other ways to make up for the potential lost revenue that are also not good.
For example, Grand Theft Auto Online could get pushed even harder with heavy monetization. Now, ostensibly consumers are responsible for the money they spend. But Rockstar could train their loyal players to be bigger whales and just make money off of pushing a large number of items to buy.
And there are other things, like segmenting or adding tiers to GTA+. But at least for now, there’s no proof that OSA has materially harmed Grand Theft Auto 6’s development. Hopefully, they won’t have to make that many changes by the time the game releases next May.