Charles Yu takes note that the controversial videogame Grand Theft Auto V has already crossed a billion dollars in sales, surpassing every movie this year except for Iron Man 3. An important point he makes about the value difference:
It’s not a stretch to think that the people who didn’t go to the movies this summer might have said, ‘you know what, I’m skipping a few and using the cash for a different kind of blockbuster.’ In that case, the most interesting number to keep in mind may be 100 — the approximate number of hours of gameplay that “GTA V” reportedly offers. For those diligent and conscientious enough to explore all the side quests, excursions and games-within-the-game, it provides weeks of entertainment. That makes the $60 retail price a bargain: 100 hours of gameplay at $0.60 an hour. Compare that with the price of admission to a movie, even a two-and-a-half hour megaproduction. The other advantage for video games — driving the usage cost down even further — is that buyers get to keep the game.
Joseph Bernstein finished the game in one 38-hour sitting:
The thing about this game, I’ve realized, is that people are going to see what they want to see in it, because this game quite willingly offers it up to them.
Game-culture torchbearers will see the return to ultraviolence that they want; dads looking for 30 minutes of mirth after putting the kids to bed will find just that; culture warriors looking for a game to pillory will have plenty to work with; games-are-art drumbeaters will find what they need; and the vast majority of people who play this game, people who are looking to be entertained for hours and hours, will certainly not be disappointed. How about me? I found a daring, contradictory, ambitious, huge, flawed, funny, beautiful, sometimes retrograde, and always compelling video game, unafraid to engage with the culture at large. That’s more than I can say for any of its peers. And that’s how I’ll treat it.
Despite its commercial success, Ryan Vogt pans the game as stale and predictable:
Grand Theft Auto has been on a decadelong spree of piling on “features,” hoping you won’t notice how much it’s aged. Looking back, it’s amazing how little evolution the series has experienced. Kidnap someone playing Grand Theft Auto III in 2001, bring him in a time machine to the present day to play GTA V, and the only actual gameplay differences he’ll notice are that now you can fly helicopters and ride motorcycles, and you won’t die when you touch a body of water. That’s pretty much it. And those changes were made in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the very next game after III.
The Dish 