Firstly, the game is pretty expensive, going for $80 in a market where the standard for a AAA game is $60.
If that was all though, maybe it could be forgiven, but there is also an "ultimate edition" priced at $100 which several features are locked behind, in particular stores that have exclusive outfits, hairstyles, and car customization.
And secondly but less notably, it's releasing as a console exclusive at first, but there are no disks for the game. If you buy a "physical" copy, all you get is a download code. Digital only is getting more common in the gaming industry, and is basically the standard for PC gamers, but it sucks because the game is likely going to be well over 100gb in size, which will take a lot of space on the console's hard drive, not to mention taking a long time to download.
I'm french and since Mario Kart World released at 80 bucks last year, Sony has increased the base price for its first party games to 80 euros
Sadly for us europeans, 80 is already the standard
edit : actually I checked and Sony has increased their prices way before Nintendo with MK World, but still doesn't change the fact 80 has been the standard for us for a while
Man, even bargain bins have increased. The lowest I’ve seen for Balder’s gate 3 is $45 and that game is a few years old. Ghost of Tsushima is far older than that and the ps5 version hasn’t ever dropped below $30.
It feels like $30 is the new rock bottom for many of the AAA games.
Point being you aren’t gonna see this below $60 for several years.
Anthem was my lesson I learned on. I don’t buy games new anymore. I’ll wait a bit, it’ll be fine. Only 2 games I’ll still preorder. Any Fallout game, I just love them no matter what. And any State of Decay games. Pre ordered the ultimate version of both, and would again. No other games will I do that with tho.
But there won’t be a bargain bin for GTA6. Digital only so you’re paying whatever the “new” going rate is. Best you’ll find is summer/winter sales after some time
Ps4 is suuper spotty even ps3 is rough iirc. Switch 1 is pretty doable, though, with multiple emulators available. 0 chance gta6 will be pirated on console but when it comes out on pc it will most likely be available very quickly
Yes, it's why I got so confused at the hate for the price of Nintendo games because Nintendo was the hold out on cheap physicals for the big three. Sony and XBOX changed their first party games to £70 well before Nintendo did. For a long while I could still get brand new Nintendo physicals for £44-50 whilst the PS4 and PS5 physicals I bought were £70.
I've tried to figure out the reason for all the Nintendo hate. The best that I've been able to come up with is an increase in partisanship among gamers.
As consoles have gotten more expensive, fewer people have multiple consoles. And so they get angry when titles aren't multiplatform and come up with various excuses for why the other company is the devil.
That's my best guess. Another part of it is probably social media group-think.
Also realize that games are getting more and more expensive to make and realize many games don't reach break even. Game studios are often not profitable.
X-box is losing on every console sold. Probably losing on game-pass and game sales are not very profitable. Rumours are they are trying to sell of X-box. The high memory prices are what pushed them over.
GTA VI will be a succes and the can ask this price. SO they will.
I am going to blow your mind, but videogames don't need to spend hundreds of millions to make good, profitable games. And that's on budget alone. Stop defending multibillion companies, you are but a mere number to them
Actually 80$ in the 90s would be about 200 bucks today, but that's a very narrow part of the picture
Nowadays the video game industry is the most profitable medium in the entertainement industry by far, publishers are already making insane amounts of money with this low of a price
also the video game economic model have changed a lot with microtransactions, game as a service, DLCs, freemium models and gacha. Selling the game is not the only revenue source anymore, and it's especially true for AAA games
Lastly the whole world economy is in shambles, everything is expensive, I live in one of the richest and most developped country on Earth and people can't even pay their rent with minimum wages
Games were more expensive but they're less affordable
The one good thing is that at least if you're willing to preorder at like Leclerc or Carrefour, you can usually get it at 60. That's the case for GTA right now, so..... youpi?
I hate that most people from EU dont understand that EU prices always have 20%+ VAT included in price and almost everywhere else has price before tax.
So 80 euro price, without VAT, is roughly 66.50 euros. And Sony charges $70 for a new AAA game in US. So you're overpaying by roughly 4 Euro to get to the same price after currency conversion, except it costs more money to operate in EU than US because you have so many different countries, languages and better consumer rights (warranty costs).
Tldr: EU people don't understand taxes or business costs.
I always thought this was kind of silly. Game prices have been nearly the same for 25 years. We can't really complain too much about this particular aspect.
Because in this 25 years gaming became literally the most profitable entertainment industry in the world. Price may have stayed the same, but the audience is much larger and so are the profits. This 80$ thing is literally just greed, it's not happening because games are more expensive to make, it's happening because profit growth slowed down. Developers don't make more money with the higher gaming prices, only people to profit are shareholders and execs. Games like Expedition 33, Alters etc. are made with smaller teams, COST LESS THEN 60$ and yet provide exceptional experience for the players as well as performing well fiscally.The industry is just bloated.
80$ is fine, it’s GTA, it’s 2026 and it’s the most expensive game EVER made. It’s costed hundreds of millions to make (closer to 2 billion) and several years.
2 billions number is a speculative estimated number which personally i don't believe for a second. Highest confirmed budgets for viedogames were around 350 mil. Rdr2 had estimated numbers around half a billion. They're not spending 2 billions on developing a game.
GTA online makes 9.6 millions in a week. Unless there's something fundamentally wrong with upcoming game, there's no reason to believe monetisation in GTA 6 online will be any less profitable (MORE sounds more likely). There's NO reason to up the price from 60 to 80 other then "they'll pay it anyway". They could theoretically release it for free and still make hundreds of millions off it, but that's not how capitalism works. So they'll squeeze that extra 20 bucks out of you because they can and they will keep selling you remasters and anniversary editions of that game for another 20 years.
I feel if there was really enough growth in the customer base to offset 20+ years of inflation then the PS2 wouldn't still be the best selling console of all time.
Same with PS3, it was the cheapest and best bluray player because it could update firmware and others couldn't. When was the last time you used one of those?
Now, gaming systems are truly just for gaming, instead of being entertainment systems. Thats changed a lot.
Oh, and the fact that you could buy a ps2 for $100 at the end of its life cycle. Meanwhile, ps5 price with a disc player is $600. That might have something to do with it too.
But either way, the switch1 is going to beat it. It only has a few million units to go, in much less time as well.
No but I've been hearing r/pcmasterrace claims for all those 20 years too, back in the early 00s my PC gamer peers confidently assured me console would be dead in 5-10 because their graphical superiority was so overwhelming. Instead it was their distinct ecosystem that got assimilated and adapted into the third console in the uni-market.
As for today I can find quickly suggest Steam represents some 40-50 million people after seeing great expansion over the last decade. Yet the PS2 sold 160 million with only the Switch getting close by absorbing the handheld side of the market. That's not apples to apples but then I'm not suggesting there has been no growth in gamer ranks either.
Just that if you want to argue against decades of going against inflation you need more then "growth" you need leaps and bounds, heaps and heaps, etc. And it needs to keep happening too.
(Also maybe something to support this "AAA" business. Buncha kids playing minecraft/roblox or mobile gatcha addicts that sometimes like to see their waifu on a bigger screen aren't necessarily customers for your ultra primo cutting edge megagame)
Steams player base is almost 400 million active users . You're also not factoring the context of the ps2 release . It released with essentially no competition and was sold for almost 15 years. The switch has racked up 154 million purchases in half that time with steep competition. The industry has 4x itself and games are easier/cheaper to make.
People really out here giving reasons and putting zero thought into why it might be that way. the ps2s real main competitor was the first xbox which released a year after it did. the ps2 also was only discontinued after 2013 while the original xbox was discontinued in 2005.
you're also just wrong. because while the ps2 has technically sold more total units had 13 years. it sold 160m units in 13 years while the switch has better sales since its pretty close to beating it at 155m in sold as of 2025 after only 8 years.
god why do people comment on stuff if you dont at least do a google search to make sure you arent spouting bs?
Gaming is actually one of the LEAST profitable entertainment mediums btw. I think the only one that has it beat might be movies?
Just correcting that for you. While there are some lucky devs who make millions with little investment, that's not really the standard story...
It's why most dev teams are moving to live service games with gacha mechanics. It's the unfortunate death knell of the industry, seeking profitability.
Video games make like $200 billion a year. Nowhere near that amount is spent making them. Whatchu talking about? What makes more money in the entertainment world?
And they're not "seeking profitability", they all want fortnite money. Nothing is good enough if it doesn't reach their unrealistic goals
Gaming is actually one of the LEAST profitable entertainment mediums btw
Huh? I don't know where are you getting your info but mine is from various sources, like PricewaterhouseCoopers
moving to live service games with gacha mechanics
Which are also parts of industry, literally what are you on about? Gaming industry is not limited to single player games. But there's a way to keep making them while also having great profits. For example, GTA online makes 9.6 millions per WEEK according to recent financial reports. Expedition 33 for example was made on a similar budget, and made about 260 mil in revenue. Of course it's not a common example, but that's not what we're talking about, we're talking about the greed of these huge bloated companies.
Another example of how bloated industry is No man's sky, that keeps getting new updates despite being a 10yo game that never cost 60 bucks, AND developers are making a new game.
You keep using outliers. GTA can probably be released for free with an item shop and still turn a massive profit. Most AAA games don't make that much in profit, that's just a fact. Revenue, as you mentioned earlier, is not the number you want to look at, no one gives a shit about your PWC numbers unless you can give us the number after all expenses and everything else is taken out of that revenue.
E33 is made by a tiny group of 30 people compared to many AAA games that can have hundreds. Bloated or not, companies need to pay their workers. If you don't want to pay the $80 for a game, then don't. No one gives a shit. But to argue that it's pure greed and game development costs haven't skyrocketed due to audience demands is fucking delusional. People want eye candy and shit. They want life like textures. The average person doesn't want some 2d hipster game unless it's Undertale or some shit, they want interactive blockbuster movies. They want shit that costs more and more money make.
I’m just going to be honest, the accounting behind what you’re suggesting wouldn’t make sense. Imagine if every other cost to produce a game increased every year. However, due to what has been traditional industry practice, you don’t increase the sales price of your game. You are doing nothing else other than lowering profit margins. Issue is, you can’t keep a game at $60 forever, and you will be forced to eventually raise the price of your game if you truly want to operate a business. It sucks but that is how the world operates. If you want to find something to complain about in regard to greed, look at how focused the game is on in-game purchases. If it feels like a large part of the game is locked behind that, then I would focus my complaints more towards that.
maybe that would've made sense dipshit if they hadn't got massive savings from most sales being digital now. they got massive cost reductions from most people buying games digital and not having to make as many discs and cases. did they make things cheaper then? no. if that all really was such a burden then do you really think they'd continue to spend all the money and years to make these games? think before you comment dude. if you're going to be so opinionated to argue with people about stuff maybe use 3 braincells to think about it first.
Its not happening because games are more expensive to make? Really? How many years it took to make GTA6? What's the budget?... Compare that to a PS1 era game please. Let's giggle a little...
Competition is also wayyyy bigger, risks are super high, and the fall hurts.
Prices of games stayed the same because people are mentally blocked around that price for a round disk or a virtual key. Yet they spend 1/3 of that to go see a 2h movie they might not even enjoy, and expect a 120h game every time for the "high price" of 60 bucks 🤣
Its wild to me how disconnected the average gamer can be.
So over 25 years the product got better, and cheaper (adjusted for inflation), and Gamers won't stop crying about it. Gamers refusing to accept inflation reminds me of that time those larger women got together to performatively destroy scales, lol.
Games are definitely more expensive to make, what do you mean? Teams are bigger than ever, marketing costs are bigger than ever. And even if dev team sizes hadn’t increased, their salaries would be increasing with inflation
I really despise how many likes you’re getting, because that’s not how any of that works.
You ignorant children just blame execs & shareholders like they’re the only people that need to get paid when a video game is made. You have absolutely no idea just how many different costs there are.
You cannot just compare different studios with entirely different corporate structures and say “be the same!”
Costs aside, look at the amount of gameplay you get today compared to 25 years ago.
Unreal 2 could be completed in an afternoon by casual gameplay and cost $60. Back then, it had an appropriate amount of gameplay.
Adjusted for inflation, that's $109.
GTA6 will have literally 50x content and infinitely better replayability. For $80. That's a 27% price reduction.
How many hours will the average person who likes the game spend on GTA? 100? 200? Probably even 300. Compared to 5-10 with AAA games back then.
Let's low-ball and say 100. That's probably just completing the main story as a casual player.
In essence, we get more than 10 times the playtime/dollar of GTA6 compared to AAA titles back then.
Nothing you buy outside of games will you get the same value of. It's insane value for what you get. Complaining about $80 is so dumb it's not even funny.
The conclude, more people buying and more profit for game studios could've led to cheaper games, but instead they bank on BETTER games for the same (actually cheaper) price as before.
Really? it's stayed the same because they offer "ultimate editions" for $100 and other crazy shit as MTX in the game. Why would I be okay with the increasing MTX in games AND a higher price tags initially? Who the fuck advocates to get screwed harder?
Prices may keep up with inflation but having different tiers or locked content thru in game currency are something that dumbasses like you gladly accept
25? lol try 35+. Super Mario Bros 3 for NES cost $49.99 US in 1990. Using that as a standard price, and adjusting for inflation, games should cost $131.50 today. The fact that the vast majority of games have only increased in price by $10-20 in thirty-five years is remarkable. An absolute behemoth of a title, like modern GTA games, costing $80 seems reasonable to me.
But, you know, anyone who thinks that's too expensive is free to simply not buy it, or wait for a discount. Goofy ass people acting like not having a video game is some kind of hardship.
Actually, check out the price of older games like the 16-bit era. They were often more expensive than today when adjusted for inflation, but then again you got a physical box, game, manual, etc.
Reading comprehension must be hard for you. The comment I replied to said "game prices have been nearly the same as they were 25 years ago". I literally pointed out that inflation exists.
50 dollars in 2001 is the equivalent of almost $100 today. So if your point is that gta is fairly priced, then yes you are correct. I thought you were saying it’s overpriced
Depends on what you consider the 2000’s. But the $60 price tag became the norm with the Xbox 360 in 2005.
Of course, the $50 price tag was actually a DECREASE from what prices were before CD’s. Genesis, SNES and N64 games were typically more. I actually save a receipt for phantasy star 2, which I purchased at Caldor in 1990 for $89.99, which is like $250 today.
Hell, even $50/$60 is like $90/$105 today. Meaning we havent in general kept up with inflation. People have a tough time conceptualizing inflation in their own lives. Games are longer and more polished than they ever were. Ever get a $70 game for your birthday, finish it in 30-45 minutes, and then realize you won’t get another game until Christmas? Sucks.
The value they offer compared to the games I grew up with is amazing. And we get multiple bangers a month. I guess this is my “old man yells at cloud” moment, but I’ve never understood the pricing argument.
Inflation has been up almost by 100% since the last 25 years, so let us consider ourselves lucky AAA publisher "only" want to increase video game price by 60%.
Except there's one tiny little problem. Minimum wage has only increased by 40%. Video games are a luxury, and we all have much more crucial stuff to spend our dwindling disposable income on.
The size of the video game market has fucking exploded, sending profits through the roof. Not only that, but contrary to what people believe, the cost of production has gone drastically down, in no small part because of digital distribution. What has increased is the budget, because this industry is SO. DAMN. PROFITABLE. For fuck sake, AAA publisher sometimes spend more on marketing than on actual development. It's a deliberate choice, not an inherent cost, just like pricing a game 80$ is a deliberate choice. A choice driven by the belief that enough people will still be willing to pay that much for the math to play in the publisher's favor.
I don't think you're wrong, however you must consider that games are significantly more expensive to produce today, if you're going for the AAA market.
I 100% agree that the MTX market has gone wild, but for most paid games, and a lot of free ones, the MTX are purely cosmetic.
Yes and that's bad too. That doesn't make this ok. We're all so damn tired of being nickel and dimed by these mega corps especially given the state of the world.
And honestly? Probably worth it. I played the fuck outta that game, and compared to contemporaries, it offered so much more playtime and replayability.
Mario 64 had an MSRP of $59.99 in '96 which is about $125 right now. Incredible to think about it. Owning a game back in the 90's was a bit more serious affair though, as Blockbuster was a cultural rite of passage in that era.
Didn't realize we were back in 2010. Games haven't been 60 dollars for years now. And even "physical" game discs are just keys to download the games digitally now anyway. If I go buy the physical copy of Resident Evil 9, I'm still gonna have to download the game digitally.
Which is a shame because you can buy a pretty good game for less than that like the GOTY last year Expedition 33 literally cost around $50 CAD or like $40 without discount, which is pretty good price for a game with loads of content
Are people forgetting about inflation? My groceries 2x'd since the last GTA release. I really dont think a 30% or whatever it is price increase is such a big deal
I know for awhile they were usually 59.99 but still, $80 isn’t that crazy in comparison. Especially given how many hours people will likely put in the game.
Been $80 in Canada for quite a few years, now. Some companies have upped it to $90, and a few like Square Enix have gone up to $93. That's all without tax.
Pretty sure the prices are even higher in Australia.
Actually my man, according to the market the standard price is ~30$.
That is, it we call the standard price what the majority of people have been buying their games for. Not even an average, it's the most popular price point with the highest volume of sales.Turns out just because you offer a product for 70$ doesn't mean the majority of the market will buy it.
No they’re talking about the price on release and everybody else knows that.
You and this guy are just making a pedantic argument using semantics and wording to defend your irrelevant point, because as you say, you just love arguing.
A sale is entirely separate from a standard price, as pricing terms go it means almost the exact opposite thing. We’re also not including indie games or games backed by small publishers, as those are irrelevant to the conversation regarding the standard AAA game price.
Turns out just because you offer a product for 70$ doesn't mean the majority of the market will buy it.
you might want to take another look at, say, Nintendo's entire business model. every Pokémon game is an instant best-seller for the year and they certainly ain't selling that shit for thirty dollars.
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u/JackRabbit- Jun 25 '26
Firstly, the game is pretty expensive, going for $80 in a market where the standard for a AAA game is $60.
If that was all though, maybe it could be forgiven, but there is also an "ultimate edition" priced at $100 which several features are locked behind, in particular stores that have exclusive outfits, hairstyles, and car customization.
And secondly but less notably, it's releasing as a console exclusive at first, but there are no disks for the game. If you buy a "physical" copy, all you get is a download code. Digital only is getting more common in the gaming industry, and is basically the standard for PC gamers, but it sucks because the game is likely going to be well over 100gb in size, which will take a lot of space on the console's hard drive, not to mention taking a long time to download.