Analyst Rhys Elliott believes Rockstar made the right decision by setting the base price at €80. GTA 6 faces an even harder challenge, however: convincing players to finally move on from the still immensely popular GTA 5.
When it was announced that GTA 6 would cost €80, many fans were relieved. A large part of the community expected Grand Theft Auto VI to cost as much as €100, but that price is reserved only for the Ultimate Edition. Among the experts who correctly predicted the final price was Rhys Elliott, chief analyst at Alinea, who ruled out from the beginning that a single edition of GTA 6 would cost €100. Now that the price has been finalised, Elliott has published a LinkedIn analysis warning of the challenges Rockstar faces.
The Obstacles Rockstar Faces with GTA 6
The analyst states that GTA 6‘s biggest obstacle is not another studio or a competing game, but Rockstar’s own catalogue. GTA 5 has been active for more than 12 years, has sold over 230 million copies, and continues to sell hundreds of thousands of units every month, averaging 5 million copies every three months. This means there is still a huge player base spending time in GTA Online, and many of those players have no urgent incentive to upgrade to the new instalment yet.
“Rockstar’s biggest challenge this time around is one GTA hasn’t faced before: attracting GTA 5 players. A higher base price increases the switching cost, directly hindering migration from GTA 5 to GTA 6. In today’s attention-saturated economy, the games-as-a-service model means GTA 6 is competing not only with games from other studios, but also with TikTok, Netflix, and its own predecessor. None of this means foregoing revenue, because the edition model offers the best of both worlds. Players with disposable income to pay for the $100 edition will. And, to be clear, this is a company that can certainly afford to think long-term,” the analyst wrote, via Wccftech.
Elliott did not mention it, but it is worth highlighting that the current state of the industry could cause many potential buyers to wait before making the jump to GTA 6. Right now, the price of the game itself could be the biggest factor discouraging a purchase. For those still playing on PS4 and Xbox One, the full cost becomes a significant psychological barrier. They not only have to pay for the game, but they also need a new console. The fact that these users must buy a PS5 costing at least €600, or an Xbox Series X that will reach €700 in August, is an obstacle that is difficult to ignore.
Source: 3DJuegos
