Highly anticipated: Not for the first time, an analyst within the video games industry has predicted that Grand Theft Auto VI will launch with a previously unheard of price point: $100. Not only would it make the most anticipated games in years exorbitantly expensive, it could set a precedent in which other companies start charging more than $70 for AAA big releases.
The latest prediction that Take-Two will charge $100 for GTA VI comes from Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities.
Pachter wrote in a research note, "We think the company has plans to sell the game at a previously unheard of price point, and suspect that management can offer consumers an incentive to pay $100 or more per unit by rewarding them with a large amount of in-game currency to be spent in GTA Online."
Pachter wrote about the benefits of integrating an online experience with a premium game, highlighting how Activision did this with both Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Mobile content prior to the release of its annual Call of Duty main entry, which led to a 40% increase in sales of CoD. As such, he believes integrating GTA Online and GTA VI and offering in-game currency for the former can justify the $100 price point.
It's hard to imagine gamers feeling a $100 price is fair. Many people have never played GTA Online even though they love GTA V, and it's likely they will feel the same way about the sequel. It would be more acceptable if Take-Two offered a special $100 edition of GTA VI that included bonuses such as in-game currency for the multiplayer element.
It's worth noting that Pachter has a long history of controversial predictions, many of which never came true. He once reportedly compared PC gamers to arrogant racists, suggested the Nintendo Switch would sell poorly, thought Activision would charge a subscription for CoD multiplayer, and said the Xbox Series X would launch at $100 less than the PS5.
However, Pachter isn't the only analyst to predict that GTA VI will cost more than the standard $70. Matthew Ball of Epyllion wrote in January that the game could be priced up to $100, something he hoped would happen as it would lead to other companies increasing the prices of their big games.
It's been five years since the first major game to carry a $70 price tag, NBA 2K21, arrived, signalling the beginning of the end for the standard $60 AAA price that had been around since the launch of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era in the mid-2000s.
With the console launch set for this fall, Take-Two still hasn't confirmed when the PC version of GTA VI will get here, though Corsair believes it will land in early 2026.
GTA VI's rumored $100 price tag sparks debate among gamers and analysts
