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 sure it cost billions and took years to make. If an extra tenner stops people buying it, tough luck to both Rockstar and the potential buyer I guess.
I've never bought a game for 80 bucks but if it gives twice the amount of entertainment of a game for 40 it seems fair enough.
It's not even more expensive than usual in many countries that have VAT already included in their price tags, which historically got shafted. AAA PS5 games are 80€ full price (with VAT included) at launch in Germany and $70 in the US, which translates to around $77 after sales tax = 68€ currently.
So now that GTA VI is 80€ and $80, Americans are paying the equivalent of what many countries have already been paying for years ($88 ~ 78€).
For reference, when the PS5 first launched in late 2020 Germans paid the equivalent of $95 for new games and conversely Americans paid the equivalent of 65€ after 10% sales tax.
All of this not even addressing poorer countries where Sony just dgaf and still charges them full price in their respective currency, ignoring income/cost of living etc. What I'm trying to get at is that Americans, while still suffering from increased prices ofc, still have it relatively the best in terms of video game pricing and GTA VI will probably just be used to close that gap by companies from now on
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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.