GTA 6 is the biggest release the entire gaming world anticipates now. The fact here is that Rockstar Games is completely silent throughout, without any official information about this upcoming GTA title. Therefore, rumors and speculations are filling the void to satisfy gamers' curiosity. One such speculation is hinting that Grand Theft Auto 6 pricing will break all the AAA price barriers and redefine the pricing of these games.
Presently, the gaming community is full of rumors about GTA 6. Whether it's some leak scenes or some other news, there’s always something going on in the Grand Theft Auto community. Interestingly, almost all the leaked footage provides GTA fans with some exciting glimpses of the upcoming game, but the big question is whether it’s going to be affordable.
Recently, in his State of Video Gaming in 2025 analysis, Epyllion CEO Matthew Ball analyzed how the video game industry is about to change in 2025. Most of his report includes the Grand Theft Auto franchise and GTA 6.
The report assumes that Take-Two Interactive will probably capitalize on the hype that the rumors and leaks have created about GTA 6 and raise the price of the game to $100 for the base game.
The reason behind this increase is that Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive have seen the success of previous franchise titles and are sure that despite a high price, GTA 6 will do well once it launches globally. The $100 price tag for the base game won’t affect the sales of the game.
Since this analysis came to light, the gaming world has been buzzing over the speculation that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto title will set a new benchmark in AAA pricing. This will be the first game to shatter the $70 benchmark and raise the standards of the AAA games.
Take-Two Interactive took the initiative to raise the price of AAA games in 2020 and reach the bar of $70. In the COVID-19 period, Take-Two Interactive took the lead and initiated a price hike from $60 to $70 for new-gen console games. Thus, the bar was set, and other developers started following it.
Once again, with GTA 6, Rockstar Games’ parent company is trying to do the same. If the base game will really cost $100 after release, it will shake the entire gaming economy, along with the upcoming game releases.
The release window of GTA 6 is likely 2025. However, no concrete timing is given for that, though. That’s one of the biggest reasons that a lot of developers are not announcing release dates for their upcoming games. No one is willing to compete with the biggest release of the year when they are already aware of the consequences of that competition.
Once again, with this pricing thing coming to the surface, the AAA developers will go silent with their games to check whether it will really be the case. If that’s the case, it will open up an opportunity for them to set their prices accordingly.
Once GTA 6 reaches $100, $70 games will consider a new range of $80 or $90. Following this trend, games initially set for $60 will rise to $70, and so on. Once again, Rockstar Games will probably change the gaming landscape with the release of GTA 6.
As the gaming industry is gradually growing, developers have been integrating new elements into the games, which is uplifting the quality of the games. Now, the point is quality doesn’t come for free; it requires investment. Therefore, very naturally, the development costs of the games are skyrocketing due to global inflation and other reasons.
For instance, take one of the biggest titles of 2024, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. The game was well-made but cost Activision around $700 million to develop. Another big title, Baldur’s Gate 3, the biggest game released in 2023, took more than $1 billion in investment to be made.
When these making costs are too high, the developer companies must raise the game price accordingly to recover at least some part of their investments. In 2024, the gaming world has gone through a bad time with multiple layoffs. Several studios were even closed because they were not making profits. If increasing game prices helps these gaming studios survive in this competitive world, there’s no harm in raising the price a bit.