Rumors have been circulating for months now that Grand Theft Auto VI, the most anticipated game of whatever year or possibly even decade that it comes out in, will be priced at one hundred dollars. For comparison, the standard edition of most AAA video games are currently priced at seventy dollars, a full thirty dollars lower than GTA’s rumored price. Now, a Swedish retailer has listed it for not one hundred dollars but approximately one hundred fifteen dollars. Again, for comparison, the most expensive addition of most AAA games that often includes things like a season pass to all DLC, gear or loot for characters, access to exclusive content, physical content like posters or books, and more generally cost one hundred dollars.
Check out the listing below.
To be fair, these kinds of things should be taken with a grain of salt. For all we know, this could be a mistake. Not long ago, another international retailer listed a release date for Grand Theft Auto VI, but then admitted to it being a joke. This could be another scenario like that, or it could be the real deal. It is entirely possible that the game could cost $115.
The question is how much that would affect player count. There are definitely those that are so excited for GTA VI, that they would pay one hundred fifteen dollars for it without giving it a second thought. The GTA games are usually fairly long games and the online component that comes with it makes the game even longer for those that enjoy it. Of course, there are also those that find the surging price of video games to be ridiculous.
Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two, the company that publishes Grand Theft Auto games, has said that the cost of games should actually be determined by how many hours players will get out of them. Read his statement below:
"In terms of pricing for any entertainment property, basically the algorithm is the value of the expected entertainment usage, which is to say that the per-hour value times the number of expected hours, plus the terminal value that's perceived by the customer in ownership if the title is owned or subscribed to. And, you'll see that, that bears out in every kind of entertainment vehicle.
"By that standard, our frontline prices are still very, very low because we offer many hours of engagement. The value of the engagement is very high. So, I think the industry, as a whole, offers a terrific price-to-value opportunity for consumers. That doesn't necessarily mean that the industry has pricing power or wants to have pricing power. However, there is a great deal of value offered. And look, it's our strategy here to deliver much more value than what we charge consumers. It's always been our strategy here. We want to make sure the experience is first-class, and the nature of the experience is not just the quality of what we offer, it's also what you pay for it, everyone knows that anecdotally."
The point he’s trying to make is that, as far as the various entertainment industries go, video games are often a better value overall than others. If you pay fifteen dollars for a two and a half hour movie, you’re paying six dollars per hour for the entertainment. If you pay seventy dollars for Elden Ring then put two hundred fifty hours into it, which many players have, that’s twenty eight cents an hour.
However, many have pointed out that that’s just not how a product works. When you buy a console, you aren’t paying for how many hours you’ll use it for. When you buy a laptop, you aren’t paying for it based on how many hours you’ll use it for work. You pay for how much it’s worth, then you use it how you see fit. If you buy a baseball bat, you don’t pay for how many times you’ll swing it. You don’t pay for how many times you’ll hit a punching bag or throw a frisbee.
This comes after it was announced that digital copies of games for the Switch 2 will cost eighty dollars, ten over the industry standard, and physical copies will cost ninety dollars, twenty over the industry standard. Keep in mind, this is for games like Mario Kart. These aren’t era defining video games that are top of the line. A new price surge may be coming for all video games, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
What do you think about GTA VI’s potential price? Is it reasonable or ridiculous? Let us know in the comments!