Most of us are bracing to spend a small fortune on Grand Theft Auto VI and one person in Ireland is about to get paid to play it. Virgin Media Ireland is running a competition to hire a single player for €800 to sit down and play Grand Theft Auto for eight hours, with the game itself paid for on top.
Eight hours of play at €100 an hour comes to €800 in total and you can split those hours across the week however you like. Virgin Media covers the cost of the game, so the winner is playing the second it launches on November 19 without spending a cent. The job is open to anyone over 18 living in the Republic of Ireland, no Virgin Media subscription and no gaming experience required. To enter, all you need to do is to fill in a short form and tell them in a couple of hundred words why you are the one for the job, with passion counting more than polish. Applications close on November 15, with the winner contacted within seven days.
There is a catch, because of course, there always is. In return the winner has to post one honest review of GTA 6 to a public Instagram or TikTok account, tagged as an ad and tagging Virgin Media Ireland, between November 20 and 26. Per the rules, it "must not contain any gameplay footage, screenshots, game audio, artwork, logos or other content owned by or associated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive." You are paid to review GTA 6, but you are not allowed to show a single frame of it.
Virgin Media is a broadband company and the page quietly pitches its ultra-fast broadband for playing GTA 6 lag free. For the price of one person's €800 and a copy of the game, it buys the eyes of millions for the biggest launch in years.
The deal stands out because playing GTA 6 is otherwise shaping up to be expensive. We have written about how high console prices are a real barrier, how buying everything Rockstar is selling runs about $1,700, the cheapest way to get in on day one and how the price swings by country. For almost everyone, GTA 6 is a bill. For one person in Ireland, it is a payday.
What the €800 actually buys you
GTA 6 expense | Rough cost | Does the €800 cover it? |
|---|---|---|
Ultimate Edition upgrade, since the copy is free | about €20 | Yes, with about €780 left |
A base PS5 to play on | about €500 | Yes, with about €300 left |
The upgrade and a new PS5 together | about €520 | Yes, with about €280 left |
Everything else Rockstar is selling | about $1,700 | No, close to double the €800 |
With the game covered, the €800 is barely touched by the upgrade, though the full merch haul still beats it.
If you are not in Ireland, do not despair. We are running our own GTA 6 giveaway and we have a guide on how to win a free copy of the Ultimate Edition. Nobody is going to pay you €800, but a free copy is still a free copy.
It is a marketing stunt, but it might be the best one of the whole launch. Getting paid €800 to play the most anticipated game in years, with the game thrown in, is the kind of job the internet was built to fight over. Applications close on November 15 and GTA 6 launches on November 19, so whoever wins will be earning while the rest of us are paying.