Grand Theft Auto 6 could cost $100. That’s according to video games analyst Matthew Ball in a recent report. Ball says there is “hope” within the industry that publisher Take-Two will take the lead and raise the price to a crisp Benjamin. The hope is this could help ease financial pressures over spiraling development costs. I’d say gamers were angry at the move, but it’s more accurate to say they were bewildered. Again it’s sparked a debate over how much games should cost, and whether AAA titles are even worth it anymore.
Take-Two was among the first publishers to push for $70 games in 2020. Since then inflation has gotten so out of control that the price for almost everything has gone through the roof. We’ve all seen reports of massive budgets for AAA games, which now need to sell ten million units to make a reasonable return on investment. Games prices meanwhile have been fairly static over the last couple of decades, with the $10 increase being the first hike in quite some time. However, rather than simply trying to match inflationary pressure, I think the push for $100 games now reeks of desperation.
I’m old enough to remember when console games were $70 to $100. In the cartridge days, they cost this much because the game itself was a pressed circuit board with the code burned onto an integrated circuit. One thing people who use this argument forget though is that nobody owned games back then because they were so expensive. You had the pack-in that came with your console and maybe a couple of others. Only rich people and die-hard collectors had extensive libraries. For most of us, if you wanted to play something new, you rented. This is why gaming was a niche hobby until the industry shifted to cheaper distribution methods.
Sony had already reported a while back that the increase to $70 led to decreased sales. Pushing that up by another $30 will likely cut even deeper. If you know basic economics, every good has a supply and demand curve. Video games being a luxury item are said to be elastic. That is a change in price changes demand by a significant degree. Many gamers already feel that most modern AAA titles aren’t a good value at current prices. The broad consensus online is that these big budgets haven’t resulted in better games. AAA titles have generally seen a decline in quality despite a seemingly infinite amount of money being thrown at them. The fact that a pixellated poker game won 2024’s Game of the Year, uncontroversially, is a sign that tastes are changing. Even the “mainstream” access-media can see it.
Rather than being the industry’s saviour, that big an increase will likely lead to a sharp drop-off in demand. However, I think there’s more to this.
If I were a betting man, I’d say that Take-Two and others are indeed considering raising game prices to $100. However, if you pay just $9.99 per month for Shark Pass™, you can get “unlimited” access to their entire library, including exciting new releases like GTA 6. Gamers see the smaller number and the word “unlimited”, and decide the subscription is the better value. As we discussed with Game Pass a while back, this isn’t the case. The idea is to lock you into paying in perpetuity for your games. If you can blast through a single-player campaign, beat it in a month or two, cancel your sub, and never plan on playing it again, you’ll come out on top. However, if you’re one of those hardcore GTA: Online players who’ve been playing the same game for years, you’ll pay far more with a subscription versus just buying up-front.
Why do I think Rock Star will do this? Simple. Everybody else is. Nearly every Western publisher has some monthly service you can subscribe to. They wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t in their favour. The real hope is the $100 price tag will push more people toward these subscriptions. It’s like going to Blockbuster on a Friday night, except way worse. Especially if all studios do away with direct sales and go this route entirely. Which believe me is what most of the industry wants. It’s the same reason there was such a big push for streaming. You will own nothing.
I’ll stick to indie and retro games if things go this route. Support smaller developers whenever you can.
Source: Video Games Chronicle
