It’s no secret that life is expensive. Gas and grocery prices are up, in particular, and against that backdrop, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick believes GTA 6 at $80 is a “bargain” due to how many hours people can play it.
“I think the consumer is under pressure. these are challenging times. Inflation has hit average consumers. Food prices are up. Gas prices are way up, and it’s taking a toll,” he told CNBC. “I think we are going to see that as we head into the Christmas season undoubtedly. Entertainment is not immune to such forces.”
What gives Zelnick hope in this environment is that, in his belief, “interactive entertainment is actually a real bargain,” and particularly a game like GTA.
“There are so many hours of engagement on offer. Even a short video game is 10 hours of engagement on the low end. You can play Grand Theft Auto 5 for hundreds of hours and not get bored. We’ll see how people feel about Grand Theft Auto 6, but I believe that you’ll be able to engage for an extraordinary long period of time,” he said. “So if consumers look at entertainment value as the intersection of how great it is and how long you can engage with it, interactive entertainment is a great bargain. However, when you give people what they want, no matter what the times are, they will show up for it.”
GTA 6’s base edition costs $80, while there is also a $100 Ultimate Edition featuring a variety of additional in-game content. GTA 5, meanwhile, launched at $60 in 2013; that same $60 is about $85 today after adjusting for inflation. This is a point that Zelnick has made repeatedly when explaining why GTA 6 is actually a very good value. He’s also said Rockstar could have charged even more for GTA 6, but chose not to so the game could reach more people.
While GTA 6’s price is actually lower than what GTA 5 launched at in 2013, the same cannot be said for the hardware people need to play it on. The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles are more expensive than ever due to the ongoing global component and memory shortages. If you’re OK streaming the game, Microsoft just announced a 10-year deal with Take-Two that includes bringing GTA 6 to Xbox Cloud Gaming on the older Xbox One console.
GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and preloading is now underway.
