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Analysts certainly seem to believe as much.
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another GRTV News, today we're going to be touching a little bit on Grand Theft Auto 6 and the repercussions that it might have because there's some analysts that are coming out and basically saying that by Grand Theft Auto 6 targeting an $80 launch price, it will embolden other developers to also target the $80 launch price."
"So anyway, let's dive on in and go from there.
So yeah, Grand Theft Auto 6 will embolden other developers to price their games at $80, says analysts, but only a few will properly benefit from it.
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 6."
"It's $100 if you go up to the Ultimate Edition, but even at the lower cost, it's believed this will only embolden other developers, or AAA developers mainly, to do the same with their game.
Speaking with GamesRadar, DFC Intelligence's David Cole said that the industry is moving toward $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, says Cole.
Fellow industry analyst, Joost van der Roenen, 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 6 bringing about a dangerous precedent for prices and physical editions?
We went into a little more detail on these topics in the article here."
"I personally still don't know whether pricing a game higher and going for lower sales, because typically speaking if you put a game at a higher price tag it's going to draw in less sales than something that's priced cheaper.
I still don't know whether that is actually a smart investment."
"I don't know whether it's better for developers to target, say, $50 price tags and look to sell 8 million copies over the first year, or whether it's better to sell it at $80 and target 3 million sales over the first year.
I'm not really too sure, honestly, what would be better in the grand scheme of things."
"What you'd have to say is that if you price a game high, it gives you lots of opportunity to reduce the cost over the years.
If you price a game relatively affordably as the years tick on, it becomes more of a challenge to reduce the cost, because eventually it becomes incredibly cheap."
"So I would say that's probably the main benefit from a publisher perspective of pricing a game very high, is that you can progressively reduce the price and continue to reap in sales in that regard.
But none of this beside, I think the best way to sell a game is to simply make a good game."
"Make a game that people want to play.
And I think that's something that we're perhaps seeing a little less frequently as of late, especially from the AAA market.
There's a lot of games that come out that perhaps people aren't chomping at the bit to play."
"I don't think that's necessarily just the fault of the AAA department.
I think it's because AAA and indie has become incredibly competitive from a creative standpoint, particularly over the last decade or so.
So there's a lot more competition."
"When you consider that PC is probably the biggest platform, aside from mobile, of course, which again, indie can tap into quite easily on mobile.
But when you consider PC as the massive platform, as it is, it's typically an area that indie thrives and AAA thrives in the most."
"It's the main established console providers of PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo, where the AAA is probably the most popular for the simple reason that a lot of the AAA titles are first party to those console makers.
So yeah, I don't know."
"Do I think the GTA will open the door to pricier games?
Yes.
Do I think we'll see a lot of them?
No.
Because, you know, for example, if Modern Warfare 4 launched at the end of this year and it was $80, I think it would probably harm it a little bit more than it would benefit the game."
"Especially when you look at a game like Modern Warfare and they click out Call of Duties every year.
Does it need to be priced more?
They're still going to sell boatloads."
"I don't know.
But yeah, long story short, I do think that it's probably going to open the door to more people pricing their games at a higher launch marker, but I'm not too sure it's necessarily a good thing in the grand scheme of things."
"But who knows?
Who knows?
But anyway, that's all the time I have on today's GRTV News, but I'll be back now tomorrow for the next one of the weeks."
"Until then, I hope you enjoy your Tuesday and I'll see you all on the next one."
