Buying GTA 6 And A New Console This Fall? You Better Be Rich

When Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives on November 19, 2026, it will undoubtedly be one of the biggest–if not the biggest–entertainment launches in history. The game will, at least initially, only launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles, which have been available for nearly six years. Typically, consoles that have been available for such a long time would be priced significantly lower than they were at launch, letting the current-gen stragglers pick up a console for a nice bargain when it’s time to play GTA 6. But nothing is “typical” anymore, and players face a very frustrating reality in 2026. Not only will you not get a discount as reward for your patience–you’re going to have to pay much more for a system that’s basically identical to the one released in 2020. 

Let’s back up a little bit to examine what the situation was like in 2013, when Grand Theft Auto 5 arrived and became the most profitable entertainment product of all time. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were on their last legs, with their successors scheduled to arrive just a few months after GTA 5’s launch. When the Xbox 360 first arrived in 2005, it was priced at $300 for the cheaper Core version. The PS3 arrived the following year, priced at $500 for its cheaper 20GB model. 

But by 2013, both systems had received multiple redesigns that not only added more features and improvements, but came with reduced prices. A new model of Xbox 360 released in 2013 with a $200 price tag. Similarly, the PS3 “Super Slim” released in 2012 and its cheaper 250GB model retailed for $270. Both prices were drastically lower than the launch versions of either system, and in the case of the PS3, it was nearly half off. Sure, the new systems were due to arrive soon, but Grand Theft Auto 5 didn’t require them, and this could feasibly be the only game someone played for months or even years at a time–especially with GTA Online. Anyone willing to wait that long before buying a console was rewarded with massive savings. 

In 2026, things look a whole lot different. Due almost entirely to the AI industry’s never-ending need for chips, the price of computer hardware has gone through the roof. GPUs and RAM are exponentially more expensive, and the problem affects not just the cutting-edge components, but also standard, consumer-level chips. Rather than gradually lower in price–like we’ve seen video game consoles do for decades–both the PS5 and Xbox Series X have gotten dramatically pricier. Both standard systems were $500 back in 2020, and now sit at $650 (more on that a bit later). The PS5 Digital Edition is also more expensive than it was at launch–$600 versus $400–so anyone looking to capitalize on GTA 6 not launching with a physical disc isn’t even going to be saving much money this way. 

There’s been no cheaper redesigns this generation, even though a “slim” PS5 did release back in 2023. The console-makers went from the infrastructure nightmare that was launching a console during a worldwide pandemic almost directly into the AI-led chip shortage. With enough trouble already sourcing components for their existing SKUs, launching a new, cheaper model makes little sense. Launching a more expensive version for price-insensitive gamers with monocles and fancy tuxedos seemed to make sense, though. Regardless, if you want to play GTA 6 at its highest possible fidelity and performance come November 19, it’ll cost you $900. If you want the Ultimate Edition of GTA 6, that’s another $100 on top of that. And sure, you could save $20 and pick up the standard edition–but it is missing several missions. 

We’ve never seen such a high barrier to entry for playing a Rockstar game, unless you were just itching to get your hands on Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis a few months after the Xbox 360 released. GTA 4 launched a few years into the 360/PS3 console generation, with prices starting to decline already. Red Dead Redemption followed in 2010, with the systems becoming even more affordable, and Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in 2018–again, years after the PS4 and Xbox One had launched, with their prices much lower than they were initially. 

It would be easier to remain optimistic about the future if it seemed like there was some glimmer of hope–some sign that we were eventually going to get over this hump and see the cost of gaming hardware start dropping again. Instead, the opposite is happening. As I was preparing to wrap up this piece, Microsoft announced yet another price increase on Xbox consoles, bringing the Xbox Series S 512GB console up to $500, which is what the 1TB Xbox Series X cost at launch back in 2020. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Xbox Series X 1TB will now be $800, and the 2TB version is being completely discontinued, likely so Microsoft doesn’t have to price it at $1,000. How magnanimous. 

Video games aren’t supposed to be a luxury hobby. Grand Theft Auto V would never have sold more than 200 million copies if they were. We’re entering a dangerous period that could see the industry morph into something that only the wealthy can even afford to enjoy, and those aren’t the people who need to be carjacking someone and stealing their Lamborghini in GTA. At this rate, the people buying an Xbox or a PlayStation will be the same ones buying a Lamborghini in real life.