Opinion: a 28 dollar Burger Shot combo is the most GTA thing Rockstar has ever done

Heads up: this is Vox, with an opinion. The prices are real, as reported by people who paid them. The conclusion is mine, and it is mostly about value for money, which is a sentence I never thought I would write about a fictional burger.

Six has the news: Burger Shot and Cluckin' Bell have opened inside Miami's Kaseya Center as part of GTA 6's marketing. Here is the part I cannot stop thinking about. A Burger Shot cheeseburger combo, with fries and a drink, costs 28.50 dollars. Before tax.

Now the small print

• It is not Burger Shot food. Reports say it is the burger the arena already sold, from its Skinny Louie stand, in a GTA box. You are paying for the box.
• It is arena pricing. NBA arenas have never been cheap places to eat. The Burger Shot logo did not make it expensive. It just made people photograph the receipt.
• The bacon one is 31 dollars. I mention this only so that nobody thinks the 28.50 option was the indulgent choice.
• Cluckin' Bell prices have not been reported. I assume this is because nobody has recovered yet.

Why this is perfect, actually

Burger Shot's whole job in GTA has always been to make fun of American fast food. The slogans are rude, the food is implied to be awful and the mascot looks like a threat. It is satire about corporations selling you nothing in nice packaging.

So Rockstar took that brand, put it in a sports arena, wrapped an existing burger in it and sold it for 28.50 dollars. To queues of people. Who filmed it.

I could not have written a better Burger Shot joke if I tried. Rockstar did not need to write one. It just opened a stand.

The serious bit

There is a real point under the cheap jokes. GTA 6 is the first game in a long time with the pull to turn a real city's arena into a billboard for a month. There is a Vice City sign on the roof. The Heat are playing A Night in Vice City on November 18 in new uniforms. And now there is food.

Yesterday I argued that six million pre-orders ended the eighty-dollar debate. The Burger Shot queue says the same thing in a paper bag. People will pay a lot for a little, as long as it has the right logo on it.

Verdict

Would I buy one? Yes. Once. For the box.

Would I recommend it as lunch? No. Three Burger Shot combos cost more than the 79.99 dollar Standard Edition of GTA 6, and the game will at least have the decency to let you throw the drink at someone.