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Last week, analyst Matthew Ball of the firm Epyllion resurrected the contentious question of AAA video game prices, suggesting that there's "hope" in the industry that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 will break the "key price barrier" that currently keeps them at around $70 (or your local equivalent).
Higher prices were intimated, but not everyone believes that what might theoretically fly for Rockstar would or even could be adopted by anyone else, let alone the industry writ large. Presenting a new perspective, the oft-cited Mat Piscatella of Circana seems to think the proposition is, quite frankly, "ridiculous". After all, more and more publishers and developers already successfully get away with charging $100, sometimes obscenely more, in exchange for digital offerings and bonus goodies for what, at launch, is the base game.
IGN spoke to several analysts on the subject, most of whom don't believe GTA 6 will be priced higher than $70. MIDiA's Rhys Elliott said: "There's no need to make the base price of any game $100. Special editions, collector's editions, gold/silver editions, etc, do the same thing, and a high percentage of day-one buyers jump on those at their elevated price points. There's just no need."
At this point, it feels like the inertia of GTA 6 will guarantee it's a hit at any price point. Elliott suggests Rockstar could potentially tarnish its reputation and goodwill with gamers for what is, ultimately, chump-change. We aren't thinking nearly big enough, it seems. The analyst expounds:
"GTA 6 is going to be a cultural phenomenon and could bear a $100 price point, but player backlash would be significant, which would be a short-term gain at a long-term cost. Maximizing day-one premium revenues and giving mass consumers sticker shock is not the play here, especially in today’s economy. Many gamers will play through GTA 6’s single-player; online is where the engagement – and recurring revenue spend – happens. It’s where the actual revenue comes in. Rockstar would not want to limit its total addressable market there."
What do you think? Will GTA 6 be the paradigm-shifting event many in the industry seem to believe? Do you think it will cost $70, $100, or something else entirely? Sift through the tea leaves in the comments section below.
[source ign.com]
Comments 47
50 euro's, please.
The way so many games launch in a broken state and micro transactions too, yeah make the new normal $100 and see how that goes for them🙄
Buying games on sale is always the way and buying them on deeper sales is even better😌
Seriously, what is so special about GTA 6? I understand that 3 was a breakthrough and gained lots of attention thanks to politicians trying to fight it. But that was almost 25 years ago! Since then Rockstar games became bigger and prettier, but not much else. What exactly will make GTA 6 a "cultural phenomenon"?
I've never once paid £70 for a game, no way am I dropping £100
I don't care what the game is, I'll wait till it goes on sale
Nice to see some common sense being applied.
Haven't bought a new game in so long now. Bought Outlaws for £30, and Cyberpunk Ultimate for £35 from a retailer, months after launch so it's actually working. Those that buy it new are just my QA and I wait for news that the game is in a better state and cheap enough for me. Don't get me wrong, Robocop was released by OCEAN in the 80's and we find out years later that you could never complete it. So at least games can be fixed. Price wise though GTA will be in profit in a week if not sooner. They could charge £10 and the result would be the same. I don't play online but have V on three playstation generations. Rockstar are a brand that just generates money.
@Dalamar You could agrue the same with COD, broke through with the OG modern warfare games and never reached that peak again, obviously just my opinion.
There will be the hardcore fans that would probably pay $150 for this game day 1. But for everyone else? People with mortgages, families, food to put on the table? This is starting to become an investment that you save for rather than a hobby. And that is a serious problem.
Either way, my resistance to FOMO is legendary. If Rockstar wants me to wait several years to play their game that's fine by me. I have plenty of other games to play.
Had a debate with her indoors about this the other day she said randomly she thinks GTAVI will be £100 when it releases, I said no chance! lol gulp
It is too far. But i've read many comments from the commenters in this site that they don't mind spending $100 for GTA 6.
It's just ironic how every time gamers complaint about games getting more and more expensives and got angry at publishers with their greedy moneytization practice. But in the same time, many gamers also support those greedy practice to the point the practice became a standard lol.
@Dalamar - Have you seen the sales figures for the series? The critic scores? Every main GTA game is a big thing at the time it came out, even spin off games like the two PSP games usually rank among the best selling on their platform. GTA V is still a strong seller, over a decade after release. When taking those things into account, of course GTA VI is already being considered a big thing.
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If what Mat is saying is accurate, then yeah, I’m not sure there’s a great reason for raising the price of the base game that high (unless you’re wanting to increase the price of the collector’s editions as well, but I’m not sure how many will buy those if you’re raising those by the same amount). If this has anything like the same level of budget and care as RDR2, then I can understand $70 USD, even maybe $75-80, but not $100. Especially since it’ll most likely include the monetization machine that is GTA online.
£50 is the max I will spend on games. Unless it's a Naughty Dog game or Kojima game then it's day 1.
For the most part, I just can't justify spending more than £50 when I have other things like a family to feed and bills to pay so I'll usually wait a few months for the first good discount sales.
I think games will go up soon as a result of post covid inflation which was after the £70 price was set.
But if they want £100++ for this they will just do a deluxe edition which contains lots of vehicles and/or guns and/or customise options removed from the base game prior to launch, and add a 'play 3-5 days early', and people will fall for it.
Honestly I think they will most likely just charge more for FOMO editions. e.g.
They make more money through MTX in GTA Online than game sales, so sell as many copies as possible at launch
With the literal billions they’ve made (and are still making) off GTA5 across three(!) console generations, they could probably release this for free without financial concerns, especially if they’re going to monetise an online component.
That much seemed obvious. That's probably roughly a quarter of what consoles will cost in two to three years' time.
@Mikey856 New car Mikey? Can't tell if it is an A or C class but it looks good buddy.
Yeah I am with you I think it will be more like £80 but if your Mrs is anything like mine they are always right 😬
It's very rare that I will buy a game on launch anyway, and it's normally the more budget titles as there's less investment needed, so this would absolutely stop me from buying any game at launch if the prices went that high.
The price will drop anyway, so I can grab it when it's right for me and the bugs have been ironed out thanks to the beta-ish testers who paid full price.
I like GTA but I don't hold it in such high regard that I'd pay $100 for it. I would wait for a sale for sure. They'll probably just do the different editions approach and call it a day.
@Member_the_game I'm with you on this one definitely
I wouldn't pay £70 for anything, purely as I have lots of games to play already, and everything goes on sale eventually...
But I don't buy the argument that games are getting more expensive, they have been incredibly resistant to inflation, sadly a pint of lager has not. Games (accounting for inflation) cost a lot more when my folks were getting me N64 games for birthday / Xmas!
@Can-You-Believe-Sith maybe , but the majority of gamers aren't gonna wait 3 years for gta6 to drop in price,when they've waited 12 years for it to release, it'll be the gaming event of this generation.
Probably just some sort of £100 FOMO edition that gives one or two weeks advanced access or suchlike.
@Cakefish 2 weeks early access, it'll sell in its millions , even at 100 quid.
@Mostik hey bro yeah it’s a little A class it was my lady’s Christmas present, I’m a C class/XJ man myself. I must admit I did mutter the ‘no chance’ under my breath 😝 hope she’s wrong though! For the first time in 11 years
Sure as sh*t ain’t paying £100 for a game.
Already found MH wilds £20 cheaper.
We don’t even know anything about this gta - world has changed lots in the last few years.
All this price speculation for a game that may not be released until 2026. Seriously is 6 gonna be released while 5 is still printing money? Releasing 6 will certainly nearly end the money flow called GTA 5 almost overnight.
GTA 6 will probably be near all profit when released as GTA5 money most likely paid for both 5 and 6.
My hunch is that $70 usd will be the minimum for the base game. There will be at least 2 deluxe editions that will bring in more money. Then there could be a not so free online this time. That could be with putting more features/benefits behind a GTA+ paywall.
Hopefully GTA6 is awesome and provides hundreds of hours of play like GTA 5 has because GTA7 may not be until the 2040's - 2050's.
Problem is there's almost no downside to hiking price at launch, catching as many consumers at that price point as possible, then running occasional discounts at closer to current typical base price. Plenty will buy at $100 and the ones who won't will wait but either way, it'll sell.
I won't pay $100 for ANY game, ever.
Sadly the GTA fanboys will pay it, and then the industry will think that people are fine with paying that much for a game, and then we are really f**ked...
All these articles about it is only encouraging them to actually do it.
While I wouldn't pay $100 for GTA 6 (I probably wouldn't buy it at any price point) there are many games that I would buy at that price point. Its not popular opinion but I would prefer fewer games, that had longer to cook, at a higher price point.
If the argument is the exact same game, just as buggy, with micro-transactions shoehorned everywhere, then no, I wouldn't pay $100 for a game.
If they rise the price of games to $100, GTA6 will likely be the only game that benefits from this as the other companies that follow suit would quickly find that consumer spending isn’t as great as they’d hoped. I think the price hike would cause the single player games market to collapse for new games. It seems like FOMO market was starting to crack the last two years with many influencers making videos about how “stressful” it is to keep up with the release schedule. I do think, with inflation being up everywhere and consumer wages not increasing to match that, people will choose groceries over games, you know? I do think prices will hike eventually, but I think it’s too soon for the games industry to do it when many games “flopped” last year.
Its not going to happen.its gonna be a 70$ game for sure.word up son
$120 for the Gold / Ultimate edition which gives you access 3 days early
$70 for standard release.
Elliot is correct: keep the price at the current $70, maximizing sales, THEN make mad bank with GTA Online (which I personally won’t bother with).
@Dalamar I agree. GTA is like Final Fantasy, it was the game of a generation. I remember when it came out in the late 90ies, it was so great to be able to do whatever you want in a "open world" environnent and be a criminal. It was a strong departure from all the games where you are a friendly hero saving the world. But now in 2025, is there really a hype from the new generation?
@themightyant " They make more money through MTX in GTA Online than game sales, so sell as many copies as possible at launch "
Best way to sell as many copies at launch is to make it free, see Hoyoverse games and Marvel Rivals. See also Concord for not making it free at launch.🤑
Now while I don't think they would go free to start b/c of the hate those games get it would be funny. Funny as in all of the GTA fans who are like "I'll buy it day 1 at any price!!" all of a sudden going "Oh no way I ever play free to start GTA." 😂 I mean I'm laughing hysterically just thinking about all of those heads exploding. 🤣
But like most sane people here I'm going $70 for Day 1 base game, $80 for 2 day early access, $90 for 1 week early access, plus several other variants of special editions. So it will be available at $70, but almost no one will pay that.
I still haven't played 5 yet, so I'm a long ways off. Maybe not even free. 🤷♂️
@rjejr I did consider GTA online going F2P, and I think it's possible, however I think it's unlikely at launch because they are in a unique position where they sold 200 million copies of GTA5. As much money as MTX makes the game sales are also ridiculously huge and make a massive profit on day 1 pre-orders alone. The rest is gravy. But you can be SURE there will be $100 - $150+ FOMO editions that will sell like hotcakes.
So, 99.9USD it is /s
For a single player game that I won't spend more than a hundred hours, 100£ is asking too much. But for games I play frequently, I consider myself crazy for spending a lot just for skins.
@Dalamar a bit of a strange take. that's similar to asking why mario kart 8 sold over 70m copies. it's a great game, but it didn't do anything particularly "new". its been the same formula for 30 years now over at nintendo.
you could easily argue that the gta series provides the best open world, sandbox environment of any other series, period. they usually add one new mechanic that is the first of its kind, as well. in gta v, you could switch between 3 characters on the fly, in real time, regardless of where each character was on the map — can't say i have ever seen that in an open world game before or since. gta vi will bring something new to the table, i am sure of it. if nothing else, it will be the most amitious open world game ever made, so that counts for something, right?
why does cod sell as much as it does? or why does fortnite attract such a large audience? some things just take hold of the social conciousness at large. gta is one such franchise. some people get it. others don't. and that's fine. almost anything in this world that generates that level of hype will probably fail to live up to it, but that is for everyone to decide for themselves.
@LifeGirl they already got $150 gta5 bundles so I wouldn't be surprised at the grotesque special editions there gonna have for gta6
The last game I paid full price for was ELDEN RING. I hardly ever pay launch prices and see it as an opportunity to crack on with my backlog until it is on sale. Problem is, others will pay. Corner the market, raise prices.
When you adjust for inflation games are cheaper now than they were back in the 80s & 90s yet games are a lot more expensive to make. If the latest fifa/fc game (virtually same game every year) costs $70 at launch it seems kind of reasonable in comparison that a game that has been in development for 10 years costs more. The problem is that other developers will follow suit for their yearly slop games and that the extra money probably goes to the shareholders rather that the actual developers who worked hard on the game.
I don't think we'll see another price hike until there are new systems that impress enough that people are willing to pay. PS6 could be that console, but who knows?
Even then, consoles were supposed to be the budget option for gaming. If they price consoles and games higher than their PC counterparts, the migration will be swift and brutal.
$100 for GTA6 is a reasonable price.
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