GTA 6 Unlikely to Be Priced in $80 to $100 Range, Analysts Say

Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to arrive in Fall 2025 but with no confirmed release date, pre-order details for the game aren’t yet available.

Written by Manas Mitul | Updated: 27 January 2025 20:04 IST

GTA 6 Unlikely to Be Priced in $80 to $100 Range, Analysts Say

Photo Credit: Rockstar Games

GTA 6 is confirmed to release on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X

Highlights

GTA 6 is expected to be the biggest entertainment launch in history
Grand Theft Auto 6 has been speculated to break the $70 price barrier
GTA 6 will likely feature two playable protagonists

Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to arrive in Fall 2025 but with no confirmed release date, pre-order details for the game aren't yet available. The lack of clarity around pricing and the intense anticipation for the game has led to speculation about GTA 6 possibly breaking the $70 price barrier for games. An analyst recently said that some developers were hoping GTA 6 would be priced between $80 and $100. Responding to the claim, several other analysts have now said the game is unlikely to be priced in that range.

GTA 6 Unlikely to Be Priced $100

IGN reached out to games industry analysts over possible GTA 6 pricing, all of whom reportedly said Rockstar Games would keep the pricing for the base game at the usual $70. Some even claimed that certain game publishers had already breached the $100 mark, offering early access and other benefits for a premium.

“Most huge AAA games already charge $100 (sometimes more) in the first 3-7 days before launch, but they call it ‘early access' and slap ‘collector's edition' in the name,” MIDiA's Rhys Elliott told IGN. “Publishers have hijacked collector's editions as a way to charge more for ‘early access' – AKA delayed access for those consumers unwilling to pay the markup.”

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The analyst said that asking $100 without offering perks like early access would be a “bridge too far” even for GTA 6.

“They'd find success either way. GTA 6 is going to be a cultural phenomenon and could bear a $100 price point, but player backlash would be significant, and that would be a short-term gain at a long-term cost,” Elliott added. He said that GTA 6, like its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 5, would bank on its online component to generate consistent revenue.

“One of the major challenges for GTA 6 is convincing players to jump ship from GTA 5's online component, so creating a needlessly higher switching cost would not be wise here,” he said.

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James McWhirter, senior games analyst at Omdia, also echoed the same sentiment. “GTA Online was key to GTA 5's ongoing success, driving premium sales and subscription service licensing; a precedent Take-Two is unlikely to disrupt with GTA 6's launch,” he was quoted as saying in the IGN report.

Mat Piscatella, analyst at Circana, also shared his opinion about GTA 6 possibly being priced in the $80 to $100 range in posts on Bluesky last week. He said there was “no need” to increase the price of the base game when the same can be done via other editions of the game.

“You want to make the funnel as wide as possible, while also optimizing launch $. You don't do this be making the base price of a game so high that the funnel narrows,” he said in his post.

The discussion about possible higher pricing for GTA 6 was fuelled by the publication of a “state of video gaming in 2025” presentation by analyst Matthew Ball earlier this month.

In his presentation, the analyst claimed that some game developers were hoping GTA 6 would be priced within the $80 to $100 range, thus breaking the $70 barrier for titles. According to him, this price shift would help $50 titles to raise prices to $60, $60 games to go to $70, and $70 triple-A releases to start testing the $80 mark. Modern triple-A releases from platform holders like Sony and Microsoft and big publishers like Activision, EA and others are usually priced at the $70 mark in the current console generation, breaking the long held $60 barrier.

Grand Theft Auto VI

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Genre Action-Adventure

Platform PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series S/X

Modes Single-player, Multiplayer

Series Grand Theft Auto

More Rockstar Games Games

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Further reading: GTA 6, Grand Theft Auto 6, Rockstar Games, GTA 5

Manas Mitul

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In his time as a journalist, Manas Mitul has written on a wide spectrum of beats including politics, culture and sports. He enjoys reading, walking around in museums and rewatching films. Talk to Manas about football and tennis, but maybe don’t bring up his video game backlog. More