In an interview with playstationinside, Shuhei Yoshida, who left PlayStation in 2024 after serving as the President of SIE Worldwide Studios for Sony Interactive Entertainment from 2008 to 2019, revealed that the price increase will happen "sooner or later." According to the long-time PlayStation boss, the problem isn't greed, but inflation. He puts it right bluntly, "people expect games that are ever more ambitious and therefore expensive to develop to cost the same. It's an impossible equation."
While he isn't sure if "Rockstar will jump at the chance" and join the $80 bandwagon (or even sell GTA 6 for $100), he explains that "a balance must be found between production costs and game prices." GTA 6 will reportedly cost Rockstar and Take-Two $2 billion to make when it's all said and done. It's a massive figure, no doubt, but the game is also expected to make it back in no time.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick isn't shy about the company's hopes for GTA 6 and the rest of the video game industry is wise enough to avoid it at all costs. Even Hideo Kojima, a long-time PlayStation partner, like Rockstar, knows better than to release games close to Grand Theft Auto.
Having been re-released multiple times across three console generations (save for the Nintendo Switch), Grand Theft Auto V is the perfect example of what Yoshida mentioned in the same interview about how companies are always looking to diversify their revenue streams. Multiple GTA V editions exist, from Grand Theft Auto V Legacy to Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced Edition, Grand Theft Auto V Expanded and Enhanced and Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced.
From a cold, financial standpoint, it makes sense for Rockstar to pull this; it works. To date, GTA V continues to outsell GOTY candidates like Split Fiction and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, thanks mostly to Grand Theft Auto Online. Based on the reception of the first and second GTA 6 trailer and the fact that it looks as amazing as it is on a base PS5, GTA 6 has a chance to exceed the sales figures put up by its predecessor.
However, will Rockstar buck the incoming trend and sell for $80 or $90, as Yoshida predicts? We'll find out over the course of the next twelve months.
In the meantime, Grand Theft Auto fans can keep themselves busy by checking out the newly updated official website for GTA 6 and the new trailer, which contains a bunch of interesting little details.
