GTA VI???

Given that it costs $20+ for a 2 hour movie with drinks and popcorn, I'd be okay to pay $100 for a game I'll be spending hundreds of hours on.
And Rockstar can get away with it, with GTAVI being the most anticipated game of all time.
 
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I just hope this doesn’t set a trend. All it takes is 1 game to be priced like this before other devs think it’s ok for them as well.
How many other games would people pay a premium like this for though? No one is paying $100 for Assassin’s Creed or FIFA base games for example.
 
I mean, if anything most games are underpriced for what they provide these days.

Games seem to be the one thing that hasn't risen in lockstep with inflation yet - seems like that $60 price has largely held stable for 15-20 years, and no one has wanted to break it even with technology and content greatly increasing. Online micro transactions, DLC, and expanded editions supplement that, but there seems to be an industry agreement to keep the base price where it is. Maybe they're just loss leaders to bring in the online revenue.

I bought GTA3 in 2001 for $49.99. Loved it, played it to death, great memories. But its content is limited, I can 100% it in a week of playing a couple hours a night. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $90 in 2025 dollars. By contrast, the most recent Rockstar game, RDR2, cost $60 at release and had a 50 hour main story and approximately 180 hours to 100% everything - and beyond that you can spend a lot of time being just immersed in the environment. And that was released seven years ago on a previous generation console, so GTA6 on more advanced technology I'm sure will have just as much content if not more.

If you go to the movies you'll pay $15 for 2 hours of non-interactive entertainment. So why games with fifty times more content are not even five times more expensive is odd. Movie ticket prices have more than doubled on average since 2001, while games have only risen 20-40% despite also undergoing significantly larger leaps in quality compared to film.

I'd love for prices to stay low, but let's admit it, of GTA6 is $125 at release, it'll still be worth it.
 
Yea, 100 isn't a problem for 44 year old me that bought Final Fantasy 3/6 for 70 as a 14 year old. Did people forget how much some SNES and N64 games were? Phantasy Star IV retailed for 100 on the GENESIS.
 
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I mean, if anything most games are underpriced for what they provide these days.

Games seem to be the one thing that hasn't risen in lockstep with inflation yet - seems like that $60 price has largely held stable for 15-20 years, and no one has wanted to break it even with technology and content greatly increasing. Online micro transactions, DLC, and expanded editions supplement that, but there seems to be an industry agreement to keep the base price where it is. Maybe they're just loss leaders to bring in the online revenue.

I bought GTA3 in 2001 for $49.99. Loved it, played it to death, great memories. But its content is limited, I can 100% it in a week of playing a couple hours a night. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $90 in 2025 dollars. By contrast, the most recent Rockstar game, RDR2, cost $60 at release and had a 50 hour main story and approximately 180 hours to 100% everything - and beyond that you can spend a lot of time being just immersed in the environment. And that was released seven years ago on a previous generation console, so GTA6 on more advanced technology I'm sure will have just as much content if not more.

If you go to the movies you'll pay $15 for 2 hours of non-interactive entertainment. So why games with fifty times more content are not even five times more expensive is odd. Movie ticket prices have more than doubled on average since 2001, while games have only risen 20-40% despite also undergoing significantly larger leaps in quality compared to film.

I'd love for prices to stay low, but let's admit it, of GTA6 is $125 at release, it'll still be worth it.
This is assuming you like the game, though.

If you spend $120 on a game that you don't like and only play for a few hours, you're going to feel more cheated than spending $15 on a movie that you don't like. So I think the end result is going to be that a lot of people just don't buy as many games. I mean, Rockstar and a few other studios might not have a problem, but I think it would be a big risk for a lot of developers.

Keeping the prices down for so long was great, but there will also be a bit of sticker shock if they jump 50% seemingly overnight. So even if it's 'fair', that's not going to be how a lot of people see it.
 
This is assuming you like the game, though.

If you spend $120 on a game that you don't like and only play for a few hours, you're going to feel more cheated than spending $15 on a movie that you don't like. So I think the end result is going to be that a lot of people just don't buy as many games. I mean, Rockstar and a few other studios might not have a problem, but I think it would be a big risk for a lot of developers.

Keeping the prices down for so long was great, but there will also be a bit of sticker shock if they jump 50% seemingly overnight. So even if it's 'fair', that's not going to be how a lot of people see it.
There needs to be a better rental or trial system for modern games. Back in the day we'd go to blockbuster and get a game for the weekend. Some of them sucked and I would've regretted buying them.

Maybe a $5 price for a trial version that gives you like 6 hours of gameplay or something just to make sure it isn't bad.
 

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