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.
