$80 GTA 6 Price Tag Seems More Likely Than Ever Thanks to New Industry Moves

Five years after Take-Two Interactive opened the flood gates to $70 AAA titles, Nintendo and Xbox are paving the way for Rockstar Games' owners to implement a similar price hike in time for what's expected to be one of the company's most financially fruitful fiscal years. This is, of course, mostly thanks to the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, coming sometime later this fall.

Nintendo confirmed in its Nintendo Switch 2 reveal that some of its games for the upcoming handheld will retail for $80. Many immediately thought that Take-Two would follow suit.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has yet to confirm that its upcoming titles will be sold for a higher price point. However, now that Xbox has joined the party, it all feels inevitable.

According to Microsoft, prices for the entire Xbox lineup, from consoles to controllers and even future AAA titles, will increase, with first-party games coming out this holiday season and going forward selling for up to $79.99.

Now that Xbox and Nintendo have joined the $79.99 party, Sony, surprisingly the odd man out, and the rest of the gaming industry are up next.

The price increase for consoles and video game titles alike are partly because of the tariffs imposed by the United States. It had already been predicted earlier this year that the same tariffs could make gaming as a hobby more expensive and we're seeing the this play out in real time.

The only question now is, just how much will GTA 6 be sold for at launch?

A $100 base price point for GTA 6, while maybe absurd, was previously touted as a "savior" for the entire gaming industry by one analyst, with another breaking down how Take-Two and Rockstar can justify a $100 price point.

And while some video game companies are avoiding GTA 6's release window like a plague, certain executives are more bullish on the idea that GTA 6 will benefit video games as a whole.

It's unclear if the price increases were part of the previous projections by Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki for Sony to post a record holiday season later this year, but it's certainly looking more like it now that GTA 6 and Ghost of Yotei are both expected to be the talk of the town come October through December.

With Sony and Take-Two set to hold their quarterly earnings call on May 14 and May 15, respectively, we're bound to hear their respective CEOs address the $80 elephant in the room sooner rather than later.

GTA 6 is currently scheduled to come out later this year with rumors floating that a reveal is coming soon after Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country have had their turn in the spotlight.

In other Grand Theft Auto news, Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced players can look forward to the release of what's arguably the best graphical mod for Grand Theft Auto 5 on May 15.