As we're getting deeper and deeper into May, anticipation for the teased but as of yet unannounced Gunrunning DLC for GTA Online is mounting. Tempered by updates of the past, players have learned to stash their cash and grind up a great deal of starting capital so they can jump into the new content right away — but how much will be enough?
Theories vary as to how outlandish the prices in the upcoming DLC will be, but it's reasonable to assume that players will need a lot of cash to get most, or all, of the content. One thing to take into consideration is the price of the previous major DLC, which was Import/Export. With all the special vehicles, vehicle warehouses and executive garages included, the full content of the update would set a player back around GTA$ 17 million, provided they buy the special vehicles at the reduced mission prices.
On the one hand, it isn't exactly crucial to buy everything the day the update lands, however it is nice to have a bit of starting capital. Of course, gunrunning itself will introduce a new method of making cash through the titular activity, however ahead of time we have no way of knowing how effective this will be, and whether it could outclass the current best method.
One should also take into consideration that as opposed to Import/Export, which wasn't the largest update of its year, gunrunning is intended to be 2017's biggest DLC in terms of content. Rockstar has already hinted at a large number of militarized vehicles, and the new gameplay mechanic will undoubtedly require an initial investment, much like the businesses in the game already.
We suspect that the prices of the militarized vehicles can be taken down a notch or two by completing missions associated with them, much like in the case of Import/Export's special vehicles. It's also likely that we'll get more military rides than we got special vehicles — we certainly have plenty of ideas about that.
Taking all of this into consideration, we'd shoot towards GTA$ 20 million being the minimum estimate of how much the complete content of gunrunning will come out at. Considering an GTA$ 8 million Shark Card costs $100, you might not want to opt to buy all of that with microtransactions.
On the flipside, some have suggested that Import/Export isn't a good frame of reference since compared to updates before and after it, it's unnaturally expensive. All the DLC vehicles since, especially the two classic sports cars, have been more modestly priced, as have major updates in the past such as Bikers and Further Adventures in Finance and Felony.
