GTA V And Online Cash Free With Xbox One Bundles

Not a sale in the regular sense, but this promotion proves that Rockstar still believes in GTA V's novelty and longevity. Usually when retailers want to drive up console sales, they do it with massively hyped new AAA releases that are only available on said console. Makes sense, right? Well, not if GTA V is around it doesn't.

GTA V saw its initial release back in early 2013. Today, middle of March, 2016, it retains full price, steadily high sales on a constant basis, frequent discounts and is the subject of several promotions internationally. The player base only ever grows, Shark Card sales are on the high and these tendencies have no intention of slowing down any time soon.

Best Buy and Gamestop, two of the biggest names when it comes to video game retail, are hosting a special kind of promotion this week. Any purchase of a new Xbox One means you will get a free copy of GTA V with it, along with a Great White Shark Cash Card, worth 1.25 million in GTA $.

But wait! There is more!

This is one of those rather rare occasions when a promotion can be combined with others. This promotion is active on any and all Xbox One systems purchased at one of those two retailers, even if other promos are active on those products, or if they are Xbox bundles which already come with free games.

Usually the promotional lifespan of an average AAA game lasts a few weeks beyond its launch date. Regardless of whether it tanks or garners critical and popular acclaim, regardless of how many copies it sells, regardless of how much hype preceded it, retailers usually take away the spotlight from a game two three weeks after it hit the shelves.

Not GTA V. It has been years since GTA V launched, it has sold so many copies that you'd think everyone with an interest in gaming has a copy. And their cat does too. As does the mouse the cat hasn't caught because it was busy playing GTA V.

Despite this, it keeps popping up. Recently it was listed bundled with the Uncharted Collection in a new PS4 bundle on Amazon. Every weekend marks yet another discount on the game. Even the PC release, which was the most recent, occurred early last year.

What do you think it is about GTA V that still compels people to pick it up in stores?