'Locking a gameplay trailer behind a Netflix subscription is a new level of greed' — GTA 6 callout Rockstar for 'paywalling' the game's extended look
So much enshitification with this once good company.
https://www.techradar.com/gaming/locking-a-gameplay-trailer-behind-a-netflix-subscription-is-a-new-level-of-greed-gta-6-callout-rockstar-for-paywalling-the-games-extended-lookOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
95 replies
I'm always amazed at Rockstar's ability to sell a game with the simple sales pitch of "It's GTA". We've basically seen nothing about this game, and they aren't well known for managing their existing games well, yet everyone is convinced this will be
Despite only seeing a pre-rendered trailer up to now. We don't even know any members of the cast on IMDb.
I think we've completely lose the plot on game development.
it'd be hilarious for the next GTA to be meh. all those billions invested, all the years, and it's like a 5.5-6 out of 10 lol.
not predicting anything, just think it'd be funny
Itll be really depressing, because itll still be GOTY and bestselling game of all time and make record number of mtx ane subscriptions.
depressingly plausible.
This is what I feel happened with Starfield (not to the same extent, but still).
Everyone hyped the hell of it, it released, huge collective "meh", and two weeks later it was mostly forgotten.
I had already had enough of Todd Howard and Bethesda's bullshit at this point, so I was just wondering why that was even hyped so much to begin with.
At least I used to like Bethesda. I don't even give a shit about GTA, so Rockstar can crash and burn for all I care.
Happy Cake day
Oh, you're right, it is. Thanks. Never really noticed they implemented that in lemmy.
Technically my first lemmy user was a couple months before, I'd followed a big reddit exodus around the time they killed third party apps, but I migrated to another instance a bit after that.
amen
And everyone is going to buy it just like always. Which proves their strategy works.
I will wait until its less then $50 and I will experience the same joy that all the jerks preordering it will have
sure I will have that experience a year or more after they do but I also get a patched product
Oh no, you're going to have to play one of the many great games in your backlog, or maybe some indie titles in the meantime! How are you ever going to manage?
2 will almost certainly be correct. It can be a flaming pile of garbage and people are still going to buy it. It could effect future sales/games, but it's still going to sell like crazy on launch. People are stupid, especially the ones into this hype.
I have people coming into my work trying to build a computer to prepare for GTA6 and its pretty obvious they dont know its not releasing on PC for a while after the initial launch. Dumb people play GTA now, its like FIFA or Madden or CoD.
This is GTA 6. The game could just be Hello World and it would still be the best selling game ever. They could have started taking preorders earlier and it could have also been the best selling game of last year.
People know how popular the last game was, assume that this one is going to be even more, and feel like they need to be first to play it or they will be left behind. They feel like they need to preorder the game so that it doesn't sell out, despite the fact that it is a digital download.
They still make a bazillion dollars no matter what. I just don't see the obsession with it. I loved gta 1 and 2 and vice city. But then, idk, tgey didn't really innovate anything, except making it look better. Cars are meh, they never added a tachometer, because the cars are actually pretty slow, the walking part is abysmal. It's like driving a tank but with feet. Tgere is no real climbing, the jumping is straight out of prince of persia on windows 3.1. Is it really just people who like that you can vang hookers and drive over people? Who long is this fun? Playing gta online really shows you the kind of people who still like these games
Why do you think it was pre rendered?, they typically use in engine footage
I'm mostly looking forward to the advertisement campaign, because this will be the largest global campaign to date
A cool billion on advertisement is not impossible with the size of this production. It's insanity.
But regarding your pointers;
Goty? Don't think so, tends to go to innovation.
For sure, this will carry so much hype it will sell a fuckton. It's also been like a decade and some, since the last GTA released. It's a huge IP.
absolutely not, I've not seen anyone expecting massive amounts of innovation. It will be a continuation of what GTA already is, likely with better graphics, a huge world (possibly the largest digital open world to date). But innovation? Nah, big investments kills innovation in games. They need a safe bet, they've not pushed 2-3 bn dollars into a game that could be either 10 million of sales or 10 bn. They'd rather take the safe 4 bn
If you need a trailer that bad and can't wait for the upload then you deserve to pay for a Netflix sub
Seriously. Who needs to see a trailer that badly? And honestly, when I already intend to buy a game, I do everything I can to avoid seeing the trailer. Why spoil things for yourself?
Like with the gaps of time between previews I've had to sit through, I'm fine waiting 6 more hours for what is probably gonna be actual 4K footage of what is going to basically be my whole 2026 holidays.
I gotta be honest, I don't see how this is different than all the times a movie preview would premiere on MTV or some other cable/satellite channel. Game trailers and gameplay previews premiered on G4/TechTV quite a bit for a good run there. Also, it's on Netflix a whopping six hours earlier than YouTube. That's not a paywall, so much as a paybump. I hate that I'm white-knighting for capitalists here, but there are things to be outraged about and this ain't one of em.
If it wasn't GTA I doubt anyone would notice and/or care. It's the equivalent of an exclusive interview or something.
Yeah I mean it might be stupid but it’s also a real nothingburger. This is like if the trailer aired at 3am and you fall asleep and watch it when you wake up at 9am.
They've generated drama with it. Mission accomplished as far as they're concerned. It truly is nothing. Six hours? I'm at work, I'm at the beach, I'm on a hike, I'm doing whatever, I'll watch it later. Boom, six hours. It's a meaningless window of time, but there's articles being written about it.
That's the thing right there. I don't understand how it could seem worthwhile to get upset about this.
That's just a terrible business model. Artificially limiting the advertisement of your product.
Not that it won't be leaked elsewhere within 20 minutes of going live.
I still don't get why people care about a new gra. It'll play exactly the same as the last 3.
Also... Once good company? Haven't they been abusive to their employees for a long ass time? Huge amounts of crunch, mass layoffs after releases?
Its GTA. Anything they do is an amazingly brilliant effective tactic because it will work no matter what it is.
I would fucking love to work advertising there. You literally cant fail
That's the point isn't it? It's the trailer that they don't want you to see, better see it
My dude, the last non-enshittified GTA was GTA 4.
It has been 18 years. This is like talking about EA as a 'once good company' 30 fucking years ago.
GTA V was pretty decent at release, that's "only" 13 years. The enshittification began later, when Online came out and they realized what a cash cow it is
WDYM GTA4 was not enshittified?
Everyone forgot the Games For Windows Live and Rockstar Social Club bullshit?
Yeah that's fair, I was going to say GTA3 initially but it has been so long that I forgot about games for windows live and that whole debacle.
It was only good back when it was called DMA Design.
Consider this a preview of gta6 ways.
i only played gta 1 but i remember you guys bitching about greediness with 5. maybe it was multiplayer? i cant remember exactly but i know there has been greediness for a long time.
5 didnt have dlc they did content updates for gta online only and it was released on 3 console gens for over 13 years.
They staggered the PC release to encourage additional FOMO sales, took away features of the game because of shark cards, and constantly bemoaned how under-monetized the game is, despite being one of the all-time highest earning games.
They've been doing that FOMO thing for a while unfortunately. The last GTA that got a simultaneous console + PC release was GTA 2.
GTA 1 still has the best theme of the series: YouTube or Invidious
Charging to watch an ad for a video game. Capitalism is really outdoing itself.
Did they even say thank you?
I mean if you can't see what you get don't preorder... Well... Never preorder But especially if you don't see what you get
it's gonna be uploaded to YouTube within 10 minutes of release.
R* said they will do an official YouTube release 6hrs after the Netflix shit.
Iirc it's only 3 hours earlier for netflix, if people are so desperate for it that they can't wait 3 hours i have no word for them.
Won't somebody think of the spoilers?!?
/s
What's the point of preordering software that doesn't use physical medium?
You get that sweet pre order achievement, I guess you'll get a clown costume or something along those lines for multiplayer
Bravo rockstar for convincing Netflix to pay for a 6 hour exclusive window 😂
I'm not gonna watch it early but I gotta respect them convincing Netflix this was worth the money.
They should make a $1,000 edition you can play a week earlier.
My god man don't give them any ideas.
I don't see the need to pay. It's not coming to PC right away, so I have plenty of time to watch full gameplay before I would consider picking it up.
Lmao. Fuck rockstar.
I really hope GTA 6 bombs HARD. Like, 30k total worldwide sales. I want them to have to reevaluate their strategy, and stop making GTA games so paint by numbers. The numbers are there to make them consistent flow of money. But they really make the missions become "Go to the yellow marker. Follow the target. Kill the gang that ambushes you. Lose the cops. Mission passed."
With multiple cut scenes (that sometimes are unskippable depending on game) between each step.
I just want to enjoy the game, in single player, and have a full experience that doesn't feel tacked on as an after thought.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but I’m pretty sure they made $
1.21.4 billion already from dummies preordering. We deserve the gaming industry we have because people never learn.Just a reminder:
NEVER preorder.
But what if they run out of digital copies?
Well.......dang it!
Gamers are fucking stupid. Blizzard figured that out back during early wow.
The shitty save system in GTA3 made me quit because i got sick of the commute and repeated voiceover lines anytime I failed a mission.
GTA4 didn't really fix that, but it was the helicopter controls that finally made me quit in the final mission.
I quit GTA5 when I spent far too long doing busywork in that forklift 'mission', and I got sick of the sluggish controls where any keypress triggers an uninterruptible animation 'for realism'. At least the save system was better. That torture scene where you didn't have the option to not torture whoever it was really pissed me off as well. I thought videogames were about choices.
Fuck the GTA games. They are not good videogames. They are movies with a few interactable elements.
That seems kind of nitpicky.
Gta3 is extremely old and was the first game of it's kind ever. The formula wouldn't get perfected for 20 years.
4 and 5 you quit because of some small annoyance but they are good games overall. I also wish the torture scene was not there, the game is fucked up enough as it is. But saying that they're just movies with interactive elements just doesn't make sense to describe some of the most open-ended games ever.
I can be nitpicky if I want.
That's where I pretty much ended up with GTA5, but I haven't fired it up in years. Any time I did get the urge, it required such a massive update that I lost the desire to play it before it completed.
and the Rockstar launcher. fuck that garbage
We all should be glad we get to see one ad less unless we pay, for a limited time at least.
The more I hear about GTA 6. The more shit it looks.
I'm just glad i don't care anymore.
Not even paywalled.
Just gated by 6 hours.
Just don't buy it. Don't look for it. Pretend it doesn't exist. Don't reward them.
I mean I don't have a Netflix subscription and I'm not going to get one just so I can watch an advert. It's such a weird move from Rockstar, Netflix must be paying them an absolute bucket load of money for this because I can't see any benefit to them otherwise.
They probably did the math and figured their console audience already has netflix on top of their online subscription and any other services. People on PC are less likely to pay for subscriptions and were gonna wait for the port anyway.
Wait, it won't launch on pc day 1?!
It never did?
No, GTA for PC has always come out at least one year after the console version.
Not since GTA 3
Lmao I'm not sure how people expected anything different from them. Rockstar has been in the business of separating fools from their money for years. The constant stream of pay to win should have been enough of a giveaway already.
Thanks to those who will upload free to YouTube.
Honestly I rather buy this game on discount during a major seasonal steam sale
🏴☠️
Enshitification is just a Monopoly or a cartel by another name.
We have the tools to break them up and fix the issue. Support candidates that will enforce Anti-Trust laws.
The funny part about all this is that the game will be released in the high seas a week before official release and will have mods working before any of the preorder suckers even get to download it.
Doubtful, given that it's only a digital console release for the foreseeable future.
If the account gets banned, what good is it? There's no point.
Oh no, I did some math and I realized I'll forever be a big dummy for not participating in this once in a lifetime moment...
I'll never know what it's like to throw $20+ at a shitty streaming platform that's hyping a videogame trailer that was made by a union busting game studio. I'll need to choose between giving up $80 worth of groceries for the base game, or I'll need to give up $100 worth of food for the full game since they paywalled additional content.
All in all, that's over a hundred dollars in the hole.
Fuck.
That.
Maybe it's an attempt to limit distribution to a platform where they can control the narrative and pull it if they choose to?
We all know that won't work, though, so I don't get why they're doing this. It seems like they'd want their marketing material to be distributed far and wide.
Oh, well. For me the game stopped at 5. It was fun while it lasted. RIP.
It will be on YouTube same day, some people dramatic / feel entitled
If you want to get the game wouldn't you want to avoid further trailers to avoid getting stuff spoiled?
Social media has caused the opposite effect. If you use Tiktok and/or Facebook regularly, you will get anything popular spoiled as a rule. On top of that, there is negative social reactions to not knowing something as soon as its knowable.
Just another reason social media algorithms are awful for society.
That’s not the point here. If you don’t want to watch it, don’t watch it. But if you do, you shouldn’t have to pay for it.
You don’t have to pay for it. You just have to wait 6 hours lol this is literally nothing.
Who wants to bet that their servers crash for the whole six hour exclusivity window!? 🤣
Zero chance. Netflix streaming tech is pretty impressive actually.
Every douchebag groyper kid everywhere will still buy this game.
None of the original devs are left at that company. All the new people are corpo scum or agenda pushing white girls.