Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 6 finally releases on November 19, and you’ll have to pay at least $80 for it. That’s a full $20 more than what GTA 5 cost in 2013 and $10 more than many other big AAA games today. Is $80 going to become the “new normal” for AAA games, or is it, along with Nintendo’s Mario Kart World and Tears of the Kingdom for Switch 2, an outlier at $80?
According to Alinea Analytics researcher Rhys Elliott, $80 won’t be an across-the-board new price for all games. Some developers will purposefully price their games lower to draw in more consumers–he pointed to games like Expedition 33 ($50), Phantom Blade Zero ($60), and Oblivion Remastered ($50) as examples.
Elliott said that when GTA 6 inevitably becomes a huge success with its $80 and $100 editions, some publishers will be “jumping for joy” because they’ll take this as a signal that the market will indeed accept these higher prices.
However, Elliott said he hopes the industry doesn’t learn the wrong lessons from GTA 6 and its $80 price point. “GTA 6 is as inelastic as things get in entertainment. People will pay anything to get their mitts on this one, which makes it seem like the perfect Trojan horse for an industry-wide price rise,” he said.
“The $80 price point will be a Godsend to some publishers, but it’ll be a snowball’s chance in hell for others. After all, this kind of stuff can be zero-sum. When a player spends $100 on GTA 6, their remaining budget shrinks,” he added.
Elliott went on to list off some of the studios and game franchises that could likely get their fanbases to buy in at $80. He said these include the next big God of War game after Laufey, the next Naughty Dog game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and future Forza titles (assuming Xbox strips them out of Game Pass). Additionally, Elliott said From Software “has the cache” to charge $80 for its new games, while Hogwarts Legacy 2 could also up the price to $80. Elliott added that some of the top sports games could charge more, but that might be a tougher sell considering those games are full of microtransactions already.
“So not all games were created equal, and mid-tier AAA publishers–and also bigger publishers offering smaller games or remakes–will price downward at $40-$60,” Elliott said.
There are a lot of factors at play here. For starters, GTA 5 launched at $60 back in 2013, and that same $60 is worth $86 today after inflation, making GTA 6–at least its $80 edition–effectively cheaper than GTA 5.
At the same time, many people are acutely aware that their pay has not kept up with inflation, while the federal minimum wage hasn’t moved up since 2009. GTA 6 is also coming out at a rough time for many people, with gas and grocery prices surging, and the cost of everyday goods generally spiking due in part to increasing inflation. And anyone heading to a store to buy a console to play GTA 6 on is in for some serious sticker shock, as game consoles today are more expensive than ever due to the AI craze.
New video games generally staying the same price over the years has had serious negative effects on the entire industry, experts have said. It’s part of the reason why publishers now try to squeeze people more with DLC, battle passes, microtransactions, collector’s editions, paid early access, and more. Recently, an Xbox advertising chief said price increases would be a hard sell, so the company is turning to ads to help offset ballooning budgets and keep the business healthy.
