Larian head of publishing Michael Douse warned that sport firms 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 worth of a minimum of $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 considered one of a number of “potential new ‘progress engines’,” alongside issues like user-generated content material, the discharge of the Change 2, and the expansion of “non-core” markets.
“In 2025, GTA 6’s affect on {industry} playtime and spend will probably be combined because it launches console-only and (severely) cannibalizes hours/spend on different titles,” Ball wrote. “However some gamemakers hope GTA 6 will probably 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 many others.”
Ball mentioned video games “have by no means been decrease in actual phrases than they’re at this time,” which he described as “a troublesome drawback to start out and worsened by stalled participant progress and rising prices” of improvement.
“No different main leisure types have seen their merchandise turn into price much less practically each single 12 months for many years—and this hurts builders of each dimension and finances,” 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.”
Picture 1 of 2
“You’re not purported to say this out loud!!!!” Douse wrote on X (by way of GamesRadar) in response to a VGC story about Ball’s report.
“A superb 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 reality. Alternatively, the accountability for a sport developer is to make it possible for the sport they present lives as much as that promise, and that funding from the participant.”
It’s, as Ball mentioned, a troublesome nut to crack. Growth 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 difficult proposition, as publishers run the danger of pushing aside consumers who’re content material to attend for a sale slightly than pouncing on a brand new sport on launch day.
Which is not to say it is an insurmountable drawback—Activision turned the dial a bit bit in 2022 with Trendy Warfare 2, and if there’s any upcoming sport that is going to have the ability to get away with one other significant worth hike, it is Grand Theft Auto 6—however it would 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 type of across-the-board affect on industry-wide pricing, some extent Douse touched on in reply to customers who identified that folks could be prepared to shell out that type 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 one is,” Douse wrote. “There’s no commonplace. 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 legislation. And with that others will sink or swim?”
There’s already lots of sinking happening within the videogame {industry}, as witnessed within the layoffs and closures which have plagued studios over the previous two years and counting, and growing the worth level of recent video games at launch is not going to handle 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 finally—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 suppose it’s going to be completely unjustified.
Grand Theft Auto 6, for the file, nonetheless hasn’t been introduced for PC—as Ball wrote, I totally anticipate will probably be a console-only launch when it comes out, and we’ll get ours later.
![[UPDATE] Staff At Sony Bend & Bluepoint Heard Their Live Service Games Had Been Scrapped At The ‘Same Time As Everyone Else’](https://www.psu.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/PlayStationSymbols-1-2.jpeg "[UPDATE] Staff At Sony Bend & Bluepoint Heard Their Live Service Games Had Been Scrapped At The ‘Same Time As Everyone Else’")
/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2Fab82d3ef-b38e-484d-a62b-a0d910cebf46 "Leila Hayes death: Prisoner and Sons and Daughters star dies at 85 following health battle")
