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PLTytus has shared a surprising discovery for Grand Theft Auto Online.
He announced it on Twitter:
#GTAOnline does not require PS Plus subscription on PS5 now!
I just tested this.
I don’t know if it is permanent or temporary promotion.
He also revealed that this was confirmed by Tez2.
Why Would Rockstar And Sony Change This?
PlayStation Plus was originally sold on the idea of paying for online play. Not everyone wants to play their games online, so not everyone would pay for it.
As online gaming became more prevalent on consoles, the costs of maintaining those services also went up. So, Sony has some justification for charging with PlayStation Plus.
Of course, we are sure that Sony has some profit margin for their PlayStation Plus subscription tiers. But that’s not the reason why this could be justified.
Several games have gotten an exemption from the PlayStation Plus requirement, such as Fortnite. Sony didn’t do that from the goodness of their hearts, though.
They did this because Fortnite is so popular that the requirement might be making Sony less money. If Fortnite players could play on PlayStation 5 freely, they could buy more microtransactions – and that ultimately makes Sony more money.
When Will We Know If This Is Real?
Sony and Rockstar Games may make an official announcement as soon as later today. But, there could be other reasons why we won’t get that announcement.
One possibility is that this was actually a mistake. In which case, Sony could quietly remove this later. In which case, they may never even officially announce it.
Another possibility is that it did go live, but Rockstar and Sony are still testing it out. We do think they can make these tests without having to have it go public, but we also can’t rule this out completely.
If that’s the case, we can expect it to be closed again shortly. And then Sony and Rockstar will make the official announcement.
This Could Be Bigger Than Free PlayStation Online
Grand Theft Auto Online is currently available as a standalone purchase, as well as part of Grand Theft Auto V. So to play Grand Theft Auto Online on PlayStation 5, players still have to buy the game one way or another.
But Take-Two could be planning to make Grand Theft Auto Online free-to-play. It could now be competing with Fortnite directly in that free-to-play space.
This could be a win for gamers, and if it succeeds, one for Rockstar and Take-Two as well. But we can’t say for sure that that’s the plan. We’ll have to see what Sony and Rockstar announce – or don’t announce – in the coming days and weeks.
