“If GTA 6 costs €100 at launch, it would be a huge mistake for Rockstar,” says US market analyst Mat Piscatella. While it may be a short-term gain, it could be a long-term loss due to the community backlash.

Most gamers agree that GTA 6 is set to make history and quickly become one of the best-selling video games of all time. Rockstar Games is aware of this, which may be why we haven’t seen a second trailer for the game yet. While Grand Theft Auto 6 promises to be a monumental game that could set new trends in the industry, some believe that Rockstar’s open-world creation could cost more than €80 at launch.

In recent days, analyst Matthew Ball has suggested that releasing GTA 6 at a price of 90 or 100 euros could help the video game industry recover from the crisis that has been going on since 2023. However, Mat Piscatella, who analyzes sales in the United States, disagrees. He believes that such a price increase would cause more damage to Rockstar Games in the long run, especially considering the reaction of the community.

“This is ridiculous” – Opinions on the price increase

The CEO of Circana says that anything is possible in the industry, but he believes that it is not reasonable and there is no logical basis for Rockstar to increase the starting price of GTA 6. Currently, AAA titles in Europe are released for 79.99 euros, while in the United States they are released for 69.99 dollars. “It’s ridiculous. There’s simply no need for a game to have a base price of $100. The goal is to open the funnel as wide as possible while optimizing for initial revenue,” BlueSky said on social media.

IGN spoke to five experts on the subject, and most agreed that it would be a serious mistake for Rockstar and Take-Two to set such a high price. “It just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense at all,” one analyst said. While many gamers would reject the price hike, it’s also true that plenty of people would buy the game at any price.

GTA 5’s pricing strategy: lessons for the future

Joost van Dreunen, a professor at New York University’s business school, says it would be a mistake to release GTA 6 at a higher price than usual. “One of the keys to GTA 5’s success was its pricing strategy: they released it at a standard price at the end of the generational change, and then re-sold the game to the same players when the new consoles came out. They will likely continue this approach, although they will undoubtedly offer premium editions with extra content at a higher price,” he said.

Publishers are already charging $100 for AAA games through special editions, according to Piscatella and Rhys Elliot, analysts at MIDiA. “Most big AAA games are already $100 (or more) in the first 3-7 days before release, but they’re selling it as ‘early access’ and putting a ‘collector’s edition’ price on it,” Elliot says.

“Publishers have essentially hijacked the concept of collector’s editions to charge more for early access. This effectively means that players who don’t pay the extra price have to wait to get access to the game,” he adds. Publishers like Ubisoft, Xbox, EA, and Warner Bros. Games are already using this strategy, and it wouldn’t be surprising if other companies followed suit. However, a price of 100 euros or more without add-ons would be “excessive”, even for a historically significant title like GTA 6.

What if GTA 6’s price actually increases?

According to analysts, it would still be a success, as GTA 6 would become a cultural phenomenon and would likely be able to handle a $100 price tag. However, “the outcry from the gaming community would be significant”, which could result in short-term profits but long-term damage for Rockstar. “Maximizing initial premium revenues and shocking consumers with prices is not the right move, especially in today’s economic climate,” they argue.

Source: 3djuegos