Fans of the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise are calling publishers "delusional" for hoping that the latest entry in the series, "GTA VI," will have a $100 price tag.
Gamers are no strangers to the fact that their hobby of enjoying video games after a long day can start becoming expensive when keeping up with recent releases. This is made even worse as there are a lot more titles coming out now than before.
Grand Theft Auto VI"s Potential $100 Price Tag
This is also the primary reason why a lot of people find great value in subscription services, such as Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. Subscriptions can sometimes be much cheaper when compared to fully-priced AAA games.
However, the former will give premium users access to hundreds of different video games that they can play instead of only one.
Modern times have also helped reduce the cost of making video games as the digital age makes it cheaper to mass produce titles, according to Gaming Bible.
On the other hand, production costs in other areas have seen significant rises that have forced video game studios to increase the individual prices of their projects. Games are now taking much longer to develop and release and usually take up larger teams.
This is evident in the last couple years where some AAA titles have price tags of about $80 or so, which is most of the time just for the standard edition. This increased price does not factor in the much more expensive editions and whatever DLCs there could be.
Justifying the Expense
The original idea of "GTA VI" costing $100 came from Epyllion CEO and analyst Matthew Ball, who made the assumption in a presentation on the state of gaming in 2025.
Near the end, he said that some publishers are hoping that the latest title in the franchise could be priced at $80 or even $100, IGN said.
Ball noted that packaged game prices are currently at their lowest in real terms and that player growth has stalled. He argued that "GTA VI" could re-establish packed video game prices after decades of deflation despite the rampant growth of cost.
However, fans are not convinced that even if "GTA VI" can pull off a $100 price tag that it should be priced that high. Currently, there are already a lot of special editions of games that cost more than $100 that come with various bonuses and even early access.
Additionally, the last decade has seen the explosive rise of microtransactions that add more revenue for video game studios when they try to milk out "cheap" games, according to Forbes.
