Paying for GTA 6 per hour played is not such a bad idea

Is pay as you play a good idea? (Picture: Rockstar Games)

A reader thinks that Take-Two’s idea of charging for games as you play them could work to everyone’s benefit, with a little adjustment…

The cost of video games is a pretty sore subject at the moment, for most people, and I’m sure when everyone saw the boss of Take-Two (who own Rockstar) saying that we should pay for games per hour played there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth. But, you know, I think it could actually work.

First of all, and not that I want to make a habit of defending millionaire (I assume) CEOs but the guy, Strauss Zelnick, was actually pretty reasonable about the idea. He didn’t introduce it with an evil cackle and it sounded like there weren’t any plans to do it yet or maybe ever. He just said that games were really good value for money, compared to movies and the like, and given how much they cost to make it would be fairer if the price of them reflected how long you play them for.

I think that’s pretty reasonable. He didn’t go into any more detail, because clearly the idea of putting a meter on a game – which is probably what most people thought of first of all – is a non-starter, but I do think there are other ways it could be made to work.

The problem here is that games are so expensive to make now, that companies can’t make the profits they need no matter the price. It’s only microtransactions and battle passes, and the other junk that most hardcore gamers don’t like, that is actually profitable, because they don’t take nearly as much time or money to make and yet people pay silly money for them.

So, what I suggest is that all full price games (i.e. not necessarily indie) are free. They’re free for the first five hours and then after that you pay for what you play. For some games maybe five hours is a bit too long but maybe there can be a sliding scale or percentage of the game length. But in this example he’s clearly thinking of long games like GTA and Red Dead Redemption.

I think being able to play Red Dead Redemption 2 for five hours for free is a pretty good idea and then either some sort of pay as you go deal, like a phone, or you buy a block of another five hours – or maybe a lump sum for the whole thing, that would be the same as games cost now.

Don’t you think that would be fair? You’d get a generous chance to try before you buy and if you don’t ever get to the end (which most people don’t, for any game) you’re not paying for something you didn’t play.

Rather than meaningless cosmetics, the game itself would become the microtransaction and I think in the long run that could make more money for companies. People would think they were paying less, or would be more convinced they were spending it on something good, and I think a lot more people would be attracted to that than just paying a lump sum upfront for something they don’t even know they like.

It’ll never happen, I don’t think. Most businesses are very shortsighted and they’ll always take the money now rather than the chance for more later. In fact, I think it’s more likely that Take-Two will end up trying to make GTA 6 even more expensive than the current standard, rather than anything else. I think my idea is better though.

By Mastadoneer

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