It’s been quite a few months since I completed 100% of what GTA IV single player has to offer. Since then, well, life has been complicated. I’ve kil… been eagerly anticipating the arrival of my ‘key to the city’. Having printed, scanned, filled out, and then emailed a form to Rockstar at the beginning of August, the fruits of my labor finally arrived this morning.

What I immediately noticed is that this isn’t just some key they had cut a few thousand times in some down town hardware store. It comes in a nice box with the Rockstar logo printed on the inside lid. The key itself is quite detailed, with “the key to Liberty City” engraved on what I can only describe as the handle of the key (forgive me, but I’m not a keyologist). MCMXCVIII is also engraved just below the Rockstar logo. I checked online and these Roman numerals turned out to be 1998. Whether I was the 1,998th person to get 100% in GTA IV, or that GTA IV (or GTA 3 for that matter) is set in 1998, I do not know.

However for Rockstar to send me a physical object for my completest behaviour, I can only be grateful. I can now keep my key safely secure inside my GTA lock-box. But given the current market value of videogame merchandise that is in ‘limited‘ supply, I expect that some people won’t hang on to theirs for too long.