Larian head of publishing Michael Douse warned that recreation corporations are saying the quiet half out loud after {industry} analyst Michael Ball wrote that a few of them are hoping Grand Theft Auto 6 will launch with a value of at the very least $80, and probably as excessive as $100.
The comment got here in Ball’s “State of Videogaming in 2025” report, which lists Grand Theft Auto 6 as one in all a number of “potential new ‘development engines’,” alongside issues like user-generated content material, the discharge of the Swap 2, and the expansion of “non-core” markets.
“In 2025, GTA 6’s influence on {industry} playtime and spend will likely be blended because it launches console-only and (severely) cannibalizes hours/spend on different titles,” Ball wrote. “However some gamemakers hope GTA 6 will likely be priced at $80—$100, breaking the $70 barrier and serving to $50 titles to maneuver as much as $60, $60 to $70, $70 to $80, and so forth.”
Ball stated video games “have by no means been decrease in actual phrases than they’re at the moment,” which he described as “a tricky downside to begin and worsened by stalled participant development and rising prices” of growth.
“No different main leisure kinds have seen their merchandise change into price much less practically each single yr for many years—and this hurts builders of each measurement and funds,” he wrote. “In actual phrases, a $70 GTA 6 can be the cheapest-ever GTA—30% lower than its unique 2D entries, and 16-24% lower than GTA 4 and GTA 5.”
“You’re not imagined to say this out loud!!!!” Douse wrote on X (through GamesRadar) in response to a VGC story about Ball’s report.
“A great firm raises salaries in step with inflation in order that their employees don’t die or one thing, however video games costs haven’t risen with inflation,” he continued. “This isn’t the explanation the {industry} is within the shit for now, however it’s an uncomfortable fact. Alternatively, the duty for a recreation developer is to guarantee that the sport they present lives as much as that promise, and that funding from the participant.”
It’s, as Ball stated, a tricky nut to crack. Improvement prices of big-budget video games have skyrocketed, whereas buy costs have remained comparatively steady—and on the PC aspect of issues particularly, Steam gross sales and Epic freebies have conditioned us to anticipate our video games to be low-cost. That makes nudging across-the-board costs greater a tough proposition, as publishers run the chance of laying aside consumers who’re content material to attend for a sale quite than pouncing on a brand new recreation on launch day.
Which is not to say it is an insurmountable downside—Activision turned the dial somewhat bit in 2022 with Trendy Warfare 2, and if there’s any upcoming recreation that is going to have the ability to get away with one other significant value hike, it is Grand Theft Auto 6—however it should undoubtedly be a subject of a lot controversy and grousing when it occurs.
Additionally a query is whether or not an $80 (or $100) GTA 6 would even have that form of across-the-board influence on industry-wide pricing, some extent Douse touched on in reply to customers who identified that individuals is likely to be keen to shell out that form of money for a brand new Grand Theft Auto, however not a lot else.
“We’re at an odd second the place retail is just not defining output and content material, however now no person is,” Douse wrote. “There’s no customary. It’s troublesome to parse. It’s ’the wild west’. The purpose is that maybe Rockstar have sufficient clout to put down the brand new regulation. And with that others will sink or swim?”
There’s already plenty of sinking occurring within the videogame {industry}, as witnessed within the layoffs and closures which have plagued studios over the previous two years and counting, and rising the value level of latest video games at launch is not going to deal with that by itself. However whether or not it is GTA 6, The Elder Scrolls 6, or no matter it’s that Larian is cooking up subsequent, it’ll occur ultimately—and as a lot because it sucks to pay extra, as somebody who remembers forking over $60 for System Shock 2 in 1999 (Canadian, sure, however the level holds), I do not assume it will be fully unjustified.
Grand Theft Auto 6, for the file, nonetheless hasn’t been introduced for PC—as Ball wrote, I totally anticipate it is going to be a console-only launch when it comes out, and we’ll get ours later.
