First game prices jumped to $70, now game subscriptions are next in line for a price hike.
The games industry is currently going through a universal cost adjustment, and like any publicly-traded companies, video games firms are passing those higher prices down to consumers. Years after the Gen9 console generation introduced the new $70 MSRP for software, we're now seeing game subscriptions hiking up monthly price tags as the services mature (and as the companies aim for more profit).
Over the last few years, we've seen both PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass increase in price across most subscription plans (except for the PC Game Pass tier). Ubisoft splintered its subscription, and Electronic Arts just raised prices of its EA Play Pro sub to a similar monthly price point. All of these services are nose-to-nose with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which offers access to hundreds of games for $16.99 a month.
Now another subscription is getting an increase--this time it's Rockstar's relatively new GTA+ service.
A bit ago, I said that GTA+ was the cheapest way to experience classic games from Rockstar. That's still true, but the price has gone up a bit. Shortly after adding a sizable value to the subscription, Rockstar quietly raised GTA+ from its original $5.99/month to the new $7.99/month price. This represents a +33% price increase, which puts it on par with Sony's PS Plus price jump in terms of percentage increases.
The hike comes right after Rockstar added Red Dead Redemption 1 to the service, which also includes the GTA remaster trilogy on PS5 and Series X/S. That's on top of the bonuses that GTA+ subscribers get in GTA Online--don't forget that this is the main reason the service exists, to supplement the online mode.
Rockstar has confirmed plans to rotate games like Bully and L.A. Noire into GTA+. Similar to Game Pass, GTA+ will rotate games in and out of the accessible library of games. If a game is rotated out, you can't play it for the time being.
Neither Take-Two Interactive nor Rockstar Games have announced how many GTA+ subscribers there are, but bear in mind the service is only available on current-gen systems and not older PS4 and Xbox One platforms.