Will GTA 6 raise game prices? Take-Two already did it back in 2020

Could Grand Theft Auto 6 push game prices past $70 and introduce a new MSRP to the Gen 9 console market? It seems unlikely, considering a major hike just happened 4 years ago.

The phrase "survive till 25" has become somewhat of a mantra for the games industry right now. The market is wracked with layoffs and fraught with inflation, and publishers are responding to rising costs by cutting jobs, cancelling projects, and closing studios (for example, the Embracer Group has laid off thousands, cancelled dozens of games, and shut down dozens of studios).

There's one thing that hasn't changed, though: Game prices. Publishers already helped push the new $69.99 pricing norm just 4 years ago in 2020, leading to a mega-boom in revenues during intra-COVID-19 periods, but that growth wasn't sustainable. Coupled with rising costs of living and inflation throughout 2023, publishers were hit on both the top and bottom; growth wasn't happening, and they now had to pay their workers more than before.

One Baldur's Gate 3 game dev made a comment on August 26 about game prices, which has since been circulated by Dexerto, leading to conversations around GTA 6 possibly being the first new game to push prices past $69.99 and introduce a new baseline price for Gen 9 games on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Michael Douse, who served as publishing director on BG3, had this to say about games pricing, referring to Ubisoft's pricing $130 Star Wars Outlaws Ultimate Edition, then jokingly saying GTA 6 could be the first game to release past $70:

"I don't love the artificiality of pricing structures post retail. Use the inflated base price to upsell a subscription, and use vague content promises to inflate ultimate editions to make the base price look better. It all seems a bit dangerous & disconnected from the community.

"I think a game should be priced accordingly with its quality, breadth & depth. I'm not against higher prices, but this arbitrary uniformity just doesn't make sense to me. It feels so unserious.

"Almost all games should cost more at a base level because the cost of making them (inflation, for one) is outpacing pricing trends. But I don't think we'll get there with DLC promises so much as quality & communication. Everyone's just waiting for GTA6 to do it lol."

The reality is that Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive already helped raise industry game prices.

Just 4 years ago when the 9th console generation launched in 2020, Take-Two Interactive was among the consortium of publishers who all raised baseline prices to $70 for new games.

The main early drivers for the $70 MSRP were Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive/2K Games, Electronic Arts, and Activision-Blizzard.

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Gamers largely disapprove of the new $70 MSRP for games, at least when surveyed. A survey conducted by me showed that out of 25,000 respondents, over 17,000 of them (68%) felt that $70 was too much to pay for a game.

Elsewhere in the industry, Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch says that $70 games are "unsustainable," but his company is ironically selling a game for $70--Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 will be $70 on consoles.

Data provided by Sony and Activision, and compiled by us, also suggests that PlayStation is selling fewer games, but still making more revenue per game sale. This indicates that gamers are indeed buying fewer titles on the PS Store--at least for the FY22 period.