One analyst suggested that Rockstar’s $80 price tag for Grand Theft Auto 6 was less than half the cost of the game.
When asked about GTA 6’s much-discussed price, analyst Ben Thompson, who is behind the Stratechery newsletter, told TBPN that Rockstar should have sold the game for more – much more. And while there is also an Ultimate Edition for $100, Thompson thinks even that price is too low.
Claiming that the game represents the work of a decade of human “blood, sweat and tears” and was completed largely before the widespread availability of artificial intelligence game development tools, Thompson said Rockstar’s long-awaited project should be priced at around $200.
Screenshots of GTA 6 Ultimate Edition
“Rockstar charges too little for this game,” Thompson said. “They should charge about $200 for this game.
“GTA 6 is the last great game,” he continued. “Much of this was done before the advent of artificial intelligence. This is the pinnacle of top quality craftsmanship. Years and years and years of blood, sweat and tears. So much so that Twitter analysts are counting cigarette butts outside Rockstar’s offices to see what kind of crisis they’re in.”
Rockstar confirmed the $80 price for GTA 6 (and $100 for the Ultimate Edition) last month following growing speculation about how much the company would ultimately charge. There has been a lot of discussion about GTA 6 costing more than any other game before it in order to recoup the huge development costs as quickly as possible. (Development and marketing costs are estimated to be between $1 billion and $2 billion.)
But most analysts agreed that Rockstar will likely remain conservative with its pricing to get the game into the hands of as many players as possible. GTA 6 is priced at $100, and millions of people will still buy it, of course, but some will be left out – players who could be lucrative sources of further income in the future.
While the portion of GTA 6 available at launch will be single-player, Rockstar will undoubtedly be looking at similar profits as the multiplayer portion of GTA 5 in the long run whenever the next version of GTA Online comes out.
“I feel obligated to buy GTA 6 just for the sake of it existing, even if I don’t know if I’ll ever play it,” Thompson concluded. “And I’ll be happy to pay $200.” IGN previously polled analysts about whether GTA 6’s $80 price tag opened the door to more expensive games – here’s what they said.
There has been an influx of information about GTA 6 over the past few weeks as Rockstar finally begins the game’s lengthy marketing campaign ahead of its long-awaited launch this November. While the new screenshots of the game look amazing, fans have criticized Rockstar’s decision to sell physical copies with a download code inside rather than on the disc, which perhaps makes more sense after Sony’s shock announcement today that it will eventually kill off PS5 game discs. Indeed, there is no sign that GTA 6 will be released on disc in the future.
There’s also more drama going on behind the scenes as more Rockstar employees try to join the union. Oh, and don’t expect the game to run at 60fps on modern consoles.
Tom Phillips is news editor at IGN. You can contact Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky. @tomphillipseg.bsky.social