Rockstar’s $80 price for Grand Theft Auto 6 is less than half what the game is worth, one analyst has suggested.
Asked about GTA 6’s much-discussed price point, analyst Ben Thompson, who is behind the Stratechery newsletter, told TBPN that Rockstar should have sold the game for more — a lot more. And while there is that $100 Ultimate Edition also available, Thompson believes even this is priced far too low.
Arguing that the game is the work of a decade of human “blood, sweat and tears”, and completed largely before the widespread proliferation of AI game development tools, Thompson said that Rockstar’s highly-anticipated project should be valued at more like $200.
“Rockstar is charging way too little for this game,” Thompson said. “They should be charging like $200 for this game.
“GTA 6 is the last great game,” he continued. “It was mostly all made pre-AI. It is the pinnacle of triple-A craftsmanship. Years and years and years of blood, sweat, and tears. To the extent where you have the Twitter analysts counting cigarette butts outside Rockstar’s offices to see how much crunch are they in right now.”
Rockstar confirmed GTA 6’s $80 price (and $100 Ultimate Edition) last month after mounting speculation over how much the company would ultimately charge. There had been plenty of discussion around GTA 6 being priced higher than any other game before it, in order to earn back as much of its enormous development costs as quickly as possible. (Estimates have placed its development and marketing costs anywhere between $1 billion and $2 billion.)
But the majority of analysts agreed that Rockstar would likely stay conservative in its pricing, in order to get the game in the hands of as many players as possible. Price GTA 6 at $100 and millions would still buy it, sure, but some would be put off — players who could have become lucrative sources of further income down the road.
While the portion of GTA 6 available at launch will be single-player, Rockstar will undoubtedly be eyeing similar profits to those reaped by GTA 5’s multiplayer portion in the long-term, whenever the next version of GTA Online arrives.
“I feel compelled to buy GTA 6 just in honor 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.” Previously, IGN polled analysts on whether GTA 6’s $80 price point had opened the door to more expensive games — here’s what they said.
The past few weeks have seen a flood of information on GTA 6 materialize, as Rockstar finally begins the game’s lengthy marketing campaign ahead of its long-awaited launch this November. While new screenshots of the game look stunning, fans have criticized Rockstar’s decision to sell physical copies with a download code inside rather than a disc, something that perhaps makes more sense following Sony’s shock announcement today that it will eventually kill off PS5 game discs. Indeed, there’s no sign of a disc-based GTA 6 launch happening down the line, either.
There’s been more drama behind the scenes, too, as more Rockstar employees attempt to unionize. Oh, and don’t expect the game to run at 60fps on current consoles, either.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social