After Nintendo kicked off the idea of games being sold at $80, Rockstar is giving us the same treatment with the price of the standard edition of Grand Theft Auto VI. It's $100 if you go up to the Ultimate Edition, but even at the lower cost, it's believed that this will only embolden other AAA developers to do the same with their game.
Speaking with GamesRadar, DFC Intelligence's David Cole said that the industry is moving towards $80 price tags as being more acceptable, but this isn't going to be a good thing for everyone trying to sell games at a higher price. "The issue is there are only a handful of premium games that command this price point," said Cole.
Fellow industry analyst Joost van Dreunen agrees, saying that while we might see $80 as a new norm in some capacity, it should only be reserved for the titles and franchises that can pull in an audience no matter the cost. "GTA 6 raises the bar again. Publishers who can clear it will pull further ahead, and those who cannot will have to compete on distribution instead, finding new channels, bundles, and pricing models to reach players the blockbusters don't," he said.
Is Grand Theft Auto VI bringing about a dangerous precedent for prices and physical editions? We went into a bit more detail on these topics in the article here.