Will GTA 6 cost $100? There's hope for that kind of price tag around the industry, analyst says, as it continues to face "an uncomfortable truth"

People are talking about GTA 6 again, and this time it's in relation to how much cash you might have to fork over to play it. According to an analyst, there's some "hope" in the industry that Rockstar might opt to buck established pricing trends with the game, potentially helping address something Larian's publishing boss says "isn’t the reason the industry is in the s**t for now", but "is an uncomfortable truth".

The analyst in question is Matthew Ball, CEO of Epyllion, a company which "provides investment and strategic advisory services, produces television, films, and video games". It also "co-operates" a metaverse thing, because it's 2025. Anyway, Ball's put out a State of Video Gaming in 2025 presentation (thanks, VGC), which attempts to predict how the industry might change over the course of the year.

On slide 214 of the very brief and snappy 222 slide presentation, Ball identifies GTA 6's pricing as being among a bunch of "potential new 'growth engines'" which could help pull the games industry out of its current "vicicious cycle" (illustrated on slide 123) when it comes to games attracting and sustaining enough player attention to justify the investment required to make them in the eyes of companies.

Alongside stuff like the Nintendo Switch 2, "UGC platforms and tools" (that's modding and the like to you and I), and of course AI (sigh), GTA 6 being set at a higher price that allows other publishers to follow suit and see a benefit in recoupling development without having to take on the effects of anmy backlash caused by being the first to do it themselves is seen as something that could aid in making a difference.

"In 2025, GTA VI's impact on industry playtime and spend will be mixed as it launches console-only and and severely canniballises hours/spend on other titles, but some gamemakers hope GTA VI will be priced $80 - $100, breaking the $70 barrier and helping $50 titles to move up to $60, $60 to do $70, $70 to $80, etc," Ball wrote.

The analyst goes on to argue that adjusting for inflation, the relative stagnation of game prices compared to their development costs and the rising prices of other goods would make a GTA 6 priced at $70 the "cheapest-ever GTA" in "real terms", adding that costing $91 would place it around the average GTA's price when inflation's accounted for.

It's a coversation we've heard before, and one that understandably doesn't sit well with a lot of consumers - given regular folks like you and I are already have to deal with massive inflation having caused the prices of pretty much everything in our lives except games skyrocket. You know, the big squeeze caused by the cost of living crisis, or whatever it's known as in your part of the world.

This is something Baldur's Gate 3 publishing director Michael Douse has acknowledged in a tweeted response to this aspect of the report. "A good company raises salaries in line with inflation so that their staff don’t die or something, but games prices haven’t risen with inflation. This isn’t the reason the industry is in the s**t for now, but it is an uncomfortable truth," he wrote, adding that it's still on companies to put out games that players feel lives up to the investment a price represents.

Having been asked by Kotaku's Ethan Gach whether a price rise for GTA would actually "break the stigma against more pricing variation or just funnel even more money to Take-Two from other games", Douse added: "Take-Two [is] obviously going to devour the entire industry for a while because the game is going to be incredible, immersive, and infinitely replayable. So in that sense, yes, but they worked for it so it’s like [shrugging emoji]."

"Everyone knows you avoid a Rockstar launch, and then you learn from it."

How would you feel about GTA 6 being priced at around $100? Let us know below!