'Not Turning Consumers Upside Down': Take-Two CEO on Resisting $80 Game Price Hikes

Nintendo and Microsoft were quick to pull the trigger on increasing the prices of their games and consoles. Sony hasn't confirmed that they're following suit, but the current leadership (and a former executive) are heavily hinting at it.

However, Rockstar Games' parent company, Take-Two Interactive, apparently isn't in a hurry to jump on the price hike bandwagon at all.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that the company's job "is not to turn a consumer upside down, shake them, and see how much change comes out of their pockets. Our job is to create the very best entertainment. If we do that, the revenue will take care of itself."

Then, when asked to comment if Take-Two will start selling its games at a $80 price point, Zelnick outright declined. Instead, he focused on the "value being delivered" by the company's titles, and how it aims to "offer that value at a meaningfully reduced cost."

Finally, as for why Take-Two is selling Take-Two is selling Mafia: The Old Country for $50, Zelnick says that this is to help the game get "into as many hands as possible."

Clearly, Zelnick is dancing around this controversial tariff-driven subject. To be fair, you can't blame him.

Back when $60 was still the normal retail price for games, Take-Two found itself on the receiving end of pretty much the entire internet's hate for being one of the first to adopt the $70 pricing structure.

Given how much is at stake at the moment, Take-Two might prefer to take a more cautious approach at the moment.

Earlier this year, Take-Two stock prices set a new records with many looking forward for the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 later this year. The stock prices then took a sharp dive following the official delay announcement.

The prices have stabilized since, owing much to the boatload of information we got from Rockstar, starting with the second trailer followed by the updated website that included details about new characters and locations.

Take-Two would very much prefer for things to stay more stable for as long as possible and maintaining the status quo could help with this.

Besides, if GTA 6 is one of the few games to be released at a $70 price point next year, it could very well buck the trend of gaming becoming a more expensive hobby.

Of course, we can't really say for sure that will happen. Zelnick is well aware that video game prices today aren't as expensive as they once were, even saying that video game prices have actually declined for the past 20 years.

With that said, we'll likely know more about GTA 6's pricing once pre-orders go live, possibly after Mafia: The Old Town and Borderlands 4 have been released in September and October, respectively.

Speaking of jobs, Zelnick recently revealed that he very much prefers to let developers like Rockstar do their thing, saying that "my job is to hire great talent and get out of their way."